$3.1m park plan for Lowe’s Lake site
Hastings District Council is set to consider a $3.1 million proposal to fill in a controversial manmade lake and turn it into a public wetland and park. Lowe’s Lake hit the headlines during last year’s local election campaign when concerns were raised by mayoral candidate Damon Harvey about the potential risk of the lake to the city’s drinking water.
A December 2019 independent report by Tonkin and Taylor found there is “very low risk” of the industrysurrounded lake contaminating drinking water.
But the council has pushed ahead with investigating how to clean up contaminants and stop stormwater draining into the lake. It will consider the latest report, and two options to rejuvenate the lake, at a meeting on Tuesday.
The recommendation for councillors is to adopt the first of the two — a conversion of about 25 per cent of the lake into a wetland.
The rest of the pit would be filled and covered to be used for another purpose such as a public amenity park.
Pollution traps would aim to keep the wetland water as clean as possible.
“This option would provide an opportunity to greatly improve the appearance and utility of the surrounding area whilst providing enhancements for the community
and improving ecological and cultural stormwater outcomes,” the agenda for the meeting reads.
“An added benefit of creating usable land from the reclamation process is the potential to separate this off and sell the land providing a future financial return on the community’s investment.”
The cost of this option, which could be executed in three stages, is $3.1m. The second option is $1.5m of stormwater mitigation, which includes putting controls on the sources of the stormwater draining into the lake, treatment devices, endof-pipe treatment and first-flush diversion.
This option could be completed within the first half of 2021.
Funding of $2m has been proposed for the project as part of the annual plan.