The Waitaki District Council published the community engagement proposal for the 30-year Oamaru Harbour master plan this week - and with it the public's first glimpse of what may come for the area after an initial community engagement in November.
The cost estimates for all three options included in the draft master plan includes $11,860,000 for maintaining the breakwater, Holmes, Sumpter, and Normanby wharves and harbour dredging.
Even the least expensive option costs $19,600,000.
But the 64-page attachment to the agenda for the July 2 harbour area committee includes proposals from a swim platform at Friendly Bay to developing a wildlife centre, an art and heritage trail, new roads, relocating the Otago shag colony, reopening Graves Track, and developing Forrester Heights.
Eight funding sources are identified in the document: land development, land sales, loans, increased rental revenue, targeted rates and levies, government grants, public-private partnerships, and philanthropic funds.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said he was not a fan of every inclusion in the proposal, but he hoped for continued public feedback when the three options ranging from "business as usual through to grand designs" went out for public consultation.
"There's absolutely no preconceived ideas about what things should look like,"
Mr Kircher said.
The initial feedback showed many people liked what was already there; they liked "the tone of the place".
"Personally, I think some of the things are very ambitious and would affect that - then again, we had people asking for that sort of thing as well," he said.
"It's got elements in it where I think most people will find things that they like about it and most people will find things that they don't like about it. That's where the feedback becomes really important."
One of the key things in the work done to date was identifying "all the things that you could spend money on and identifying all the ways you could pay for it without going to rates".
"That's where things like raising the possibility of Forrester Heights [come in] - because it can help pay for it. Some of the other development helps pay for it, some of the other development helps justify it."
He said over the last 15 years a lot of work had been done to develop Oamaru harbour into a destination that was also enjoyed by locals, and he did not want to do anything that took away from that.
"We want to only improve that. That's always the challenge," Mr Kircher said.
"But when you take a plan and you're working on options as to how you're actually going to fund it ... that's where some of the other ideas come in. It's a realistic view of how you do these things.
"If you look at what has been achieved then getting the bones of the area to the stage that was at, I think over 30 years there's a heck of a lot that can be achieved."
