The biggest ticket items to get the go-ahead are multimillion-dollar projects arising from the Cromwell Master Plan, such as developing a new town hall, events centre and museum.
At the same time, further urban design work will also take place to redevelop Cromwell's mall, without knocking down the library and service centre building as earlier suggested.
The council also agreed to delay by three months a decision on funding for the district's many museums, while staff work through a new community trust management option.
This option was raised in public submissions and had not previously been considered.
In the meantime, the Cromwell museum gets a $4000 funding boost to $40,000 per year.
Rubber-stamped were investigations into a public toilet at the Cromwell Bike Park, a junior playground at Pioneer Park in Alexandra, and an IceInline rink development.
Swimming pool lane hire and entry fees were raised as recommended.
The new fees are $30 per hour for lane hire for private swim schools and a concession card charging $1 for pool entry for all swim school students.
A multipurpose sports turf will be progressed, the Alexandra Riverside Park Development gets a $650,000 fully loan-funded investment, Omakau gets a $1 million loan for its community hub and Roxburgh gets $500,000 for its pool.
The council also agreed to the Maniototo Community Board's requests to progress a district bridge strategy and a reserves project at a former ice rink.
Before the meeting, a troop of council staff had summarised 3172 pages of submissions into a 389-page printed spreadsheet and printed it in font size 6.
All documents are also available online.
Central Otago Mayor Tim Cadogan expressed ``heartfelt thanks'' to the staff, who had experienced a vastly increased workload compared to three years ago, when just one in 40 people submitted to the long-term plan submissions.
There were 478 submission three years ago.
He thanked submitters.
``I think it has been an outstanding success... I would have to say we must be in the top three of the most engaged communities in New Zealand,'' Mr Cadogan said.
The councillors began deliberating at 9am yesterday and had ticked all 19 recommendations (four were amended, mainly to clarify process) in just over two hours.
They then considered questions raised by submitters on Monday and agreed to add one more recommendation to the plan _ to work on developing a partnership with Ngai Tahu's Otago runanga consultancy service, Aukaha.
The public part of the meeting closed at 11.45am.
While the council is in a good financial position, holding cash reserves of $13.74 million in June 2020 and with no external debt at that time, this year's capital programme is expected to incur some external debt, the council website says.
External debt is expected to increase through the course of the 10-year plan, to address the need for new infrastructure and accommodate district growth.
The council's cash reserves have been significantly boosted by the proceeds of Cromwell land sales, which are forecast to net a value of $40 million in the next 10 years.
- By Marjorie Cook
