A hearing panel of six councillors considering the inclusion of a new $31 million office block in the Otago Regional Council's long-term plan has handed the decision over to all councillors.
Tomorrow, the hearing panel will make its recommendations, including a 1% rate increase, on the council's 2009-19 draft long-term council community plan to the finance and corporate committee, whose membership includes all 11 councillors.
The committee will then make its recommendations to the full council, which is scheduled to adopt the plan on June 24.
The hearing panel, comprising Crs Duncan Butcher (chairman), Gretchen Robertson, Stephen Woodhead, Louise Croot, Doug Brown and Bryan Scott, has spent the past three weeks considering 250 submissions to the plan, including 71 which were spoken to at hearings around the region last month.
Submissions covered a range of topics, including the proposed new building, funding contributions to the Forsyth Barr Stadium, the planned works on the Taieri flood and drainage scheme, passenger transport and funding requests.
A report to the finance and corporate committee said of the 132 submissions made on the proposed building, eight were fully supportive, two were neutral and the remaining expressed some concern.
The hearing committee had not provided a recommendation on the issue "as it was considered that a discussion by the full committee would be more appropriate", the report said.
While the stadium was not an issue up for a debate, some submitters, including the Waitaki District Council, had questioned the distance factor discounts in the revenue policy for the stadium.
The hearing committee recommended no change be made to the policy and considered that "the distance discounts are fair", the report said.
It also recommended the work proposed for the Taieri flood and drainage schemes continued as planned, despite some concerns from landowners.
However, it took up their requests and recommended a review of the classification scheme to consider the fairness of the revenue policies.
The panel did not support requests for train services on the basis the Government had advised all funding for rail infrastructure was to undertaken by it, the report said.
It also recommended turning down funding requests from Otago Harbour Ferry Inc, Basketball Otago, NZ Historic Places Trust, the Waitaki District Council and the Central Otago Wastebusters.
The financial impacts of those recommendations meant the general rate would remain at the proposed 1% increase - a general rate of $4.46 million in 2009-10 compared with $4.42 million in 2008-09.
