Cr Andrew Simms broached the topic during Dunedin City Council annual plan deliberations on Wednesday, where councillors approved nearly $6 million for renewals for the facility.
‘‘Is there some anxiety that we’re starting to chase our tail with Moana Pool and that the cost of maintaining an ageing facility may well be soon to exceed the cost of perhaps replacing that facility?’’ Cr Simms asked.
City services manager Scott MacLean said options for the pool’s future would be considered in a report coming to the council within the next year.
However, regardless of pool’s future, the council needed to spend money to keep it open in the meantime, he said.
‘‘If council decided, just hypothetically, to build a new facility elsewhere, and they decided that today, it would probably be between seven and 10 years before that was open,’’ Mr MacLean said.
Moana Pool opened in 1964 and has been expanded several times. It is the largest of the city’s four pools.
The council’s draft 2026-27 budget included $8.5m for Moana Pool renewals which, by re-phasing project spending, was changed to $5.9m in the revised budget.
Council chief executive Sandy Graham said councillors would also have to consider the structure and delivery of Dunedin’s aquatics network.
Any decision would need to clarify whether Moana Pool was replaced by one large facility or several smaller facilities.
As Ms Graham put it: ‘‘Whether you want a McDaddy kind of pool or whether you want a range of [Te Puna o Whakaehu facilities], for example’’.
‘‘It’s a big conversation that will need to be had.’’
Mr MacLean said Moana Pool was a ‘‘unique’’ facility.
‘‘You don’t build Olympic-sized swimming pools on the first floor of a building, but we did back in the day.
‘‘That throws up a whole lot of challenges and future development opportunities.’’
