Draft Sandy Point Domain Reserve Management Plan

Sandy Point Domain overview

Sandy Point Domain is major recreation hub and open space to the west of Invercargill, near Oreti Beach. It is highly valued by the local community and visitors to the city of Invercargill. The domain provides a wide range of recreation, sport, and adventure activities and is ‘home’ to many sporting and recreational clubs as well as forestry and other commercial activities.

Sandy Point Domain also has significant cultural, biodiversity, historic and amenity values. The domain is facing some challenges including:

remaining relevant to future population and recreational trends
quality and appropriateness of existing assets, facilities and land uses
potential impact of climate change and sea level rise on assets and infrastructure from inundation and erosion

A Masterplan was endorsed by Council in September 2023, following engagement with mana whenua, key partners, stakeholders and members of the public. The master planning process gave us a big-picture vision to meet the communities needs for Sandy Point Domain.

Management Plan Development

Council is required under the Reserves Act 1977 to prepare Management Plans on the reserves it manages.

Management plans contain policies on the long-term maintenance and development of our reserves. They are prepared to ensure the needs of the current and future users are captured and reflected in the plan and are consistent with current ‘best practice’ management procedures.

After the Masterplan process was completed, Council asked the community to use it as their guiding document to tell us what their priorities were for the next 10 years, to inform our new Management Plan. All the feedback Council received, along with the themes identified in the Masterplan have fed into our draft Sandy Point Domain Management Plan

Key Projects

This management plan is a review of the 2013 Sandy Point Domain Management Plan. It aims to show the first ten years of detail based on the masterplan and each subsequent review will incorporate future priorities. Key Projects that will be concentrated on through the implementation of the Masterplan into the ten-year management plan include:

Enhance Recreation

Initial development of sport/recreation hub facilities
Commencement of consolidation of “like” activities and clubs
Development of a multi recreational use area including a park for dog walking, disc golf and informal walking areas within the former golf course location

Promote Unique Visitor Experience

Develop Eco-sanctuary area at the southern end of Sandy Point, and Eco-adventure area adjacent to Fosbender Park at the northern end of the Domain
Implementation of improved signage, wayfinding and interpretation displaying domain's history
Complete sealed road loop around Recreation Hub, incorporating Pit Road, Links Road and Sandy Point Road

Build Environmental Resilience

Replant and replace slash, broom and forestry areas at southern end of Sandy Point Domain with suitable indigenous shrub and forest species
Consolidate coverage of commercial forestry at the southern end of Sandy Point Domain
Enhance existing wetland edges with suitable indigenous shrub and riparian planting

Draft Implementation Plan

An implementation plan has been developed to support the execution and administration of the reserve management plan.

Have your Say

Council is inviting you to submit on this draft Management Plan, and draft Implementation plan. Please indicate in the survey if you would like to present to a hearings panel and someone will be in touch with more information following closure of submissions.

Submissions close on Friday 31 January 2025