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A boardwalk stretching from St Clair in the foreground to Lawyers Head is the most popular...
A boardwalk stretching from St Clair in the foreground to Lawyers Head is the most popular proposal from the public for the Dunedin City Council’s St Clair to St Kilda coastal plan. PHOTO: GERARD O’BRIEN
A boardwalk from St Clair to Lawyers Head, a walkway from St Clair to Tunnel Beach, and hot pools and year-round use at the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool are all among the most popular community suggestions to date for Dunedin’s St Clair to St Kilda coastal plan.

Jim O’Malley. Photo: supplied
Jim O’Malley. Photo: supplied
Dunedin City Council infrastructure services committee chairman Jim O’Malley said nothing was off the table — but individual plans for the well-used stretch of Dunedin coastline needed to work together to create a long-term infrastructure vision for the council.

Cr O’Malley said the planning under way for the St Clair to St Kilda coast was "a positive example" of the work of council infrastructure services general manager Simon Drew.

Mr Drew was trying to ensure the council had consistent plans for a 30- or 40-year timeframe — and the council was "not forgetting that we agreed on this 10 years later and going off in another direction again".

"The area will have investment put in it, one way or another," Cr O’Malley said.

"What the engineers and the people that are doing the city work there want out of this [consultation] is they want to get a sense of where the community wants to go.

"But also it’s got to be in a cohesive and strategic manner rather than a whole lot of individual things strung together without talking to the other ones, if you know what I mean."

Public drop-in sessions have been rescheduled for the coastal plan.

After public meetings and other forms of community engagement were placed on hold in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, an online "ideas wall" was created to gather public feedback and the council extended consultation on the coastal plan.

The question that generated the most feedback in that forum asks users what they would like to see improved on the coast.

The top five answers are: building a boardwalk from St Clair to Lawyers Head; a large public domain on one of the Kettle Park fields; installing hot pools at the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool and keeping it open year round; reintroducing native species to the area to protect the area’s dunes; and building a walkway from Second Beach to Tunnel Beach.

The top answer for how future generations could use the coast is a "managed retreat".

Council coastal specialist Tom Simons-Smith said the consultation would help create "a sustainable plan" for managing the coast from St Clair Headland to Lawyers Head.

Starting tomorrow, the council would host a series of public drop-in sessions on the plan at St Clair.

Before Covid-19, the council had planned to confirm a coastal plan by the end of the year.

Now consultation on management options — a second round of consultation — would run from September 1 before a final coastal plan was confirmed early next year.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz


Drop-in sessions

Public drop-in sessions at St Clair:

Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25

Friday, July 31 and Saturday, August 1

Friday, August 7, and Saturday, August 8

Friday, August 14 and Saturday, August 15

The drop-ins will be open from 10am to 2pm at the South Coast Board Riders Club, 1 Esplanade, St Clair.
 

Comments

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How about not increasing our rates, or better still, reduce them, so we can all benefit? The DCC is operationally unable to think outside their tax and spend mindset.

Don't be fooled Dunedin - Look at the DCC's track record of the DCC asking the public for ideas/ Suggestions. - What makes this project different? Do they think that people are stupid?

While I admire the thinking, the sort of attractions that people will enjoy and allow a better experience for those that are unable to walk the beach, and the ability to run the 'hot pools' (ps, raise the jolly water temperature for a start!) year round, my greastest concern is the threat of erosion. Again, we cannot have the frills without basic infrastucture put into place. Please don't spend one red cent on any of these ideas until the threat of erosion has been addressed and that the old dump has been made safe from erosion. AKMONS, sure up that coastline before adding 'nice to haves'. DCC, please don't put the 'cart' before the 'horse'. A good house rests on solid foundations.......

I think we should invest a little money by repairing the groynes and stop the erosion along our city beaches before any other expensive coastal project gets the nod

There is no need to talk about a managed retreat if we can stop the erosion in the same way it was prevented in the previous 120 years

If commenters claim to speak for the Public, best not to diss ideas put forward by the Public.

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