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Dunedin businesses are cautiously optimistic about the city council's $850million plan for the city.
The Otago Chamber of Commerce held a forum yesterday about the Dunedin City Council's 10-year plan.
About 30 members attended the forum, where Crs Chris Staynes, Christine Garey and Andrew Whiley and council strategy and governance general manager Sandy Graham answered questions about the plan.
Concerns were raised about the proposed central city upgrade as well as whether the council had considered possible construction constraints when planning its major projects.
The impact of rates increases on individuals and businesses was also raised.
Cr Staynes encouraged businesses to make their own submissions on the plan as well as contributing to the chamber's submission.
``The more businesses that take the time to submit, the more influence those views have on councillors,'' he said.
The chamber's chief executive, Dougal McGowan, said the organisation would start its formal consultation today, but informally members had already expressed support for parts of it.
``What we are hearing is that it's great to see there is a vision for the future of the city,'' Mr McGowan said.
It was positive the council planned to invest more money in economic development as well as basic infrastructure, he said.
``We can now start to see there is money going into how we create strong economic development in the city, which will continue the growth we already seeing.''
