There’s been a fair bit of comment about Council buying Carisbrook from the ORFU. Criticisms of the purchase include:
• the DCC paid way above a realistic valuation
• it should not have bought the ground at all
Subsequently Council has been consulting the community about what it should do with the property. This has led to the further criticism that if Council didn’t have a use or purpose in mind, why did it buy it?
Shortly after the purchase the rationale presented to the public by DCC CEO Jim Harland was two fold. Council wanted to ensure the financial viability of the ORFU as the main user and therefore main income generator in the Forbar Stadium. Dunedin is short of handy industrial land and Carisbrook is (mostly) zoned industrial. So Council can on-sell to industrial users.
That’s fine but why did the DCC have to be the purchaser? Why couldn’t the ORFU have simply sold on the open market. The ORFU would still have got its money and Carisbrook would still be zoned industrial. Maybe there was concern that the full $7 million that the ORFU needed to cover its debt and still retain sufficient working capital to trade on, would not be obtained.
I did not support the purchase. I felt Council was borrowing enough money already without borrowing more to bail out a fragile business, and I didn’t think we had enough information. I was on the losing side of that vote and it was purchased.
So what is my position now the Council owns Carisbrook? Let’s look at the context. South Dunedin is a depressed area in a number of ways: socially, economically and infrastructurally. I believe that this end of our city already needs some much overdue attention and TLC. Closing down Carisbrook as a sports arena is depriving the area and its community of yet another asset. It is important that whatever replaces it should be a positive asset for the local community. Arguably industries that provide jobs could have benefits but it would be best if the jobs were for the people who live in that area. There are other uses that could be potentially detrimental. Imagine if a developer bought all or part of the site (and there are several parts to it) and applied for Resource Consent to erect mid-size retail premises, a bit like the strip on ex-railway land along southern Cumberland St. Historically Dunedin has not been good at protecting industrial zoned land from retail development. Look at Anderson Bay Road. Retail of just about any kind on the Carisbrook site could potentially harm the retail viability of both the central city retail area and South Dunedin. In fact it could be an economic and town planning disaster for the city. So Council needs to be very careful about what uses it allows the Carisbrook site to be put to.
Here’s where I see turning a flawed decision into an opportunity. I believe that we should look at Carisbrook in the context of the whole South Dunedin area. And I believe we should look at the area, not now, but as we would like it to be in 20 years time. How might the re-use of Carisbrook contribute to the big picture: the big vision for South Dunedin? There’s no doubt the area will need a drastic overhaul before then. Much of the housing is way past its use-by date. It is mouldering, damp, unhealthy and horrendously expensive to heat. Some of the reticulated infrastructure, like pipe-work is very old. Sea level rise will present enormous challenges and demand innovative solutions for an area that is partly below the high tide level now. Yet it will I believe, remain an important suburb. Being flat and close to the central city, it is ideal for older homeowners. There is potential to re-develop areas more intensively, rationally and sustainably. As energy costs rise a compact city will become even more important.
The re-use of Carisbrook could contribute significantly to the 20 year vision for South Dunedin. I don’t yet have a preference. Suggested uses include older peoples’ housing, light industrial, training facilities, and retaining the sports complex or part of it. I suspect that the final re-use plan will be a combination of uses. They should be uses that contribute to the big picture of South Dunedin’s future, and the South Dunedin community needs to be intimately involved in painting that picture.
