DCC Draft Long Term Plan 2015/16 to 2024/25 —CONSULTATION OPEN

There is no SMALL CITY in this image.
Guess we haven’t started building yet. When we do it will take consolidated council debt to way over the existing +$600M which, of course, Mayor Liability Cull is already bleakly and ‘creatively’ responsible for.

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Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Long Term Plan Consultation Document Unveiled

This item was published on 27 Mar 2015

‘Building a Great Small City’, the consultation document for the DCC’s Long Term Plan (LTP) 2015/16 – 2024/25, has been released.

Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull says the LTP is designed to enable the Council to examine the bigger picture and set a strategic direction for the city covering the whole range of DCC activities. Now priorities have been proposed, the Council wants to hear from residents.

The consultation document is now available at http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/ltp
Public consultation on the LTP opens on Saturday (today) and closes at 5pm on 28 April. People are encouraged to provide their feedback early and, if possible, use the online form.

A snapshot of what is proposed, presented in a map fold newsletter, will be delivered to every Dunedin household. Once consultation has started, there will be further information on the DCC website and copies of the LTP consultation document will be available at DCC facilities such as libraries and the Customer Services Agency in the Civic Centre. There will also be public workshops and LTP stands in public places and at events, with the opportunity for face-to-face discussion with Councillors. These will be held around the wider city during the consultation period.

For the first time, comments on the DCC Facebook page and tweets to @DnCityCouncil using #LTP will also be considered as feedback.

█ 28.3.15 ODT: Council accepts social media feedback

Mr Cull says, “The LTP allows us to look at the aspirations outlined in our strategy documents and how we should prioritise these over the next 10 years. This means the LTP needs to balance our financial goals, such as debt reduction, and our desire to develop Dunedin to make it a more attractive place to live and do business. Our Financial Strategy imposes a 3% rate increase limit unless there are exceptional circumstances. This is in line with the average 3% ‘cost of living’ increases faced by local government. Under current proposals, an overall 3.8% rate increase is proposed for 2015/16. The exceptional circumstances are that, in addition to our usual inflationary pressures, we have had to provide an extra $1.5 million for the Forsyth Barr Stadium and budget for losing $4.5 million of dividend from Dunedin City Holdings Limited, which owns companies on the DCC’s behalf. We have absorbed some of those costs, but cannot absorb them all. We also need to balance rate limits against a range of new proposals in the LTP which the Council believes are worth investing in. We need public input on these, plus feedback on several other projects that have been included as unfunded items, such as new aquatic facilities for Mosgiel and lighting for the University of Otago Oval.”

Amendments to the Local Government Act have changed the way LTPs are developed and consulted on with the community. Past long term plans have involved first producing a full draft plan which was then put out for public consultation and feedback. Under the new system the DCC is required to produce this consultation document which sets out the issues the city is facing and the options for managing them. Key issues include putting the Stadium on a more achievable financial footing, tackling the city’s ageing infrastructure and addressing low economic growth.

The consultation period will be followed by hearings and deliberations in May and a final LTP will be adopted by the Council in June.

A range of supporting documents and an online submission form will be available at http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/ltp from 7am on Saturday (today).

Contact Dave Cull Mayor of Dunedin on 477 4000. DCC Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image source: DCC

University of Otago landscaping

[NOT about Hyde street Keg Party and damage to an emergency response vehicle – the timing of this facelift announcement isn’t subtle]

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UNI NEWS via Otago Bulletin
Major landscaping project will enhance the Dunedin campus

Friday, 27 March 2015

Landscaping plans include “town square” outside Staff Club

From early April, university staff will start to see works underway as part of a landscaping project to give the grounds of the Dunedin campus a major facelift. But the benefits are promising to be very much worthwhile for both staff and students alike, with new paving, outdoor seats, trees, LED lighting, signage and improved shelter within a large area located between the northern end of the Richardson Building, and the intersection of Castle and Dundas Streets.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne says the intention is to vastly improve access to known sunny, sheltered sitting areas for staff, students and visitors; to replace paving that has come to the end of its life with safer materials; and to create new outdoor sitting, walking and recreational areas to improve the visual linking between spaces on the campus.

The area outside the St David Café is the first in line for a facelift. The project will be underway from early next month, beginning with work on the St David Café courtyard.

The overall project is to include the replacement of old drainage with new drains in parts of the central campus, on behalf of the Dunedin City Council. Also, major works completed last year when the West bank of the Leith outside the Clocktower was lowered for flood protection purposes had resulted in a substantial visual change requiring further improvements.

Professor Hayne believes the enhancements are necessary and important, and they will further benefit what is already a stunning campus environment.

“We want to both maintain and enhance our well-known advantage as one of the world’s most beautiful campuses in which to work and study.”

“We want to both maintain and enhance our well-known advantage as one of the world’s most beautiful campuses in which to work and study. This is an exciting and innovative project that further capitalises on the potential here for greater outdoor utilisation of our beautiful, green areas, and spaces such as the north end of the Richardson building, where people have traditionally liked to sit because it is so sheltered and sunny. We will be using quality materials, timbers, and real blue-stone that blends in with our heritage buildings. We want this development to stand the test of time.”

Professor Hayne is mindful that this is a major task, and that there will be disruption to staff and students as work progresses. Information signs will be erected, and work will progress with as few interruptions and as little noise as possible. The University aims to have the project completed by the end of January 2016. Staff and students will receive regular updates as work patterns change via the Bulletin Board.

Highlights of the landscaping project include:

• The creation of an enclosed courtyard allowing for a more well-defined and better sheltered seating area outside St David café, with low bluestone walls.

• A new paved ‘town square’ outside the Staff Club in the area known as the Castle Walk. This will involve the relocation of some memorial trees, and the removal of others that arborists have said have come to the end of their natural life. An artwork (to be commissioned) will feature in the middle of this new square, as well as seating.

• A new entranceway and Oamaru stone University sign at the entrance to the University from Castle Street, near the Centre for Innovation, and also a new sign on top of blue-stone and caste iron fencing at the entrance to Castle Street from Dundas Street.

• Castle Street in the section housing Selwyn and the new University Childcare Centre, Te Pā, will be re-paved, with wider footpaths, and bike racks. The area will become more bike-friendly, with adjustments to parking spaces, and more trees. The street will be raised to be level with the footpath, with more trees added.

• The newly created concrete steps on the new embankment leading down to the Leith Stream opposite the Clocktower will have railings, and improved safety adjustments, while matured specimen trees will be added to increase shade and improve visual values.

• The tiled walkway over the Union St bridge will be re-paved in high-quality durable pavers, and there will be seismic strengthening underneath the bridge.

• Further extensive new landscaping with trees, seating and paving, as well as wider walkways and steps, will be installed in the area that runs east of the Union Street bridge, up past the Archway Lecture theatres, and around to the front of Allen Hall where Theatre Studies is housed.

• A community garden with fruit trees will be cultivated between the villas at the University end of Castle Street; and also rain gardens planted with native grasses added throughout the newly-developed area.

• In total, there will be about 15,000 square metres of paving replaced or re-laid.

• No changes are planned for the grass bank and historic mature trees directly in front of the Clocktower.

█ http://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/otago089520.html

More: The Campus Landscape

28.3.15 ODT: $8 million facelift for university
Next month, the University of Otago will embark on a 21-month multimillion-dollar landscaping project to transform Dunedin’s campus.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr