At a meeting yesterday to tidy up annual plan issues, the council voted, with just two dissenting voices, to include option 12a in its long-term council community plan to go out for public consultation.
The 12a option includes the external features of the atrium and a new entrance-way for the town hall.
Proposing the key recommendation, ‘‘to include 12a in the draft plan as the preferred option,'' Cr Richard Walls said it was time the council stopped ‘‘fiddling around'' with the redevelopment and did it properly. He called for a peer review on the proposal, in a similar fashion to that being done on the proposed Awatea St stadium.
He believed that would take away much criticism and that public opinion ‘‘might well change'' when people saw the proposal the council finally settled on.
The atrium extension or ‘‘glasshouse'' has been the cause of controversy because it changes the Harrop St streetscape.
General manager strategy and development Kate Styles told councillors that, unlike earlier options, 12a would retain ‘‘the vista'' from Moray Pl to the First Church spire.
Cr Dave Cull suggested the council needed the public to ‘‘buy into'' the project and he hoped the annual plan process would produce ‘‘some form of consensus'' so the council could move on, with the public behind it.
In addition to the $40.08 million estimated for the redevelopment, the council approved $3.62 million for airconditioning and $1.74 million for a new space for the Metro Cinema. The estimated costs could vary by 20%.
Cr Michael Guest considered the project should be ‘‘done properly''. He suggested the council should not try to cut back on the project to save money because of the stadium proposal which, he considered, had to stand on its own merits.
‘‘Let's bite the bullet and let's get building it.''
There was discussion over a new front entrance to the town hall - estimated to cost between $4 million and $6 million.
When asked, Ms Styles did not consider there was a business case for that part of the project. However, councillors believed it should remain in the plan, largely for ‘‘aesthetic'' reasons.
Crs Neil Collins and Teresa Stevenson voted against the project. Cr Collins considered the city could not afford it and ‘‘the public spoke loud and clear and told the council they didn't want it to proceed''.
Cr Stevenson believed improvements were needed, but preferred options other than the atrium extension.
Cr Syd Brown questioned spending $1.74 million on premises for the Metro Cinema because it was a commercial entity. However, Cr Cull said the cinema was part of the ‘‘cultural tapestry'' of the city.
