About 90 people and nine Dunedin city councillors attended the meeting organised by the Dunedin Area Citizens Association at St Peter’s Church Hall, Caversham.
A show of hands indicated about three-quarters of those attending were South Dunedin residents.
Association chairwoman Jennifer Thomas said the meeting had been organised before the release last month of three long-term proposals to manage long-term flood risk in the area.
Other council matters should be discussed first, ‘‘then we can get into South Dunedin, because it might be quite boisterous’’, she said.
Deputy mayor Cherry Lucas and councillors Lee Vandervis, Doug Hall, Andrew Simms, Mandy Mayhem, Jo Galer, Benedict Ong, Russell Lund and John Chambers attended.
The meeting began at 7pm and was set down for two hours. Discussion of South Dunedin infrastructure began in earnest at 8.50pm, although attendees and councillors raised the matter throughout the meeting.
The released proposals included the proposed purchase and demolition of between 1100 and 1700 houses in the area, making way for public works.
Attendees showed broad support for engineering solutions, dubbed ‘‘pipes and pumps’’, and showed little appetite for the demolition of properties.
‘‘It’s all well-being of people too - it’s not just bloody houses,’’ one attendee said.
‘‘People are p..... off ... you don’t know where it’s going to go, do you?’’
Other matters discussed included the landfill planned for Smooth Hill, Marlow Park’s dinosaur slide, upgrades to the Dunedin Town Hall and the ongoing new Dunedin hospital build.
Cr Ong was repeatedly asked to stick to the subject at hand.
As he began speaking about a proposed Forsyth Barr Stadium hotel, Cr Lucas stood to warn him about his comments.
Cr Ong had previously leaked details of the proposal to media.
