The option for two murals to be displayed on the Trafalgar St and Montgomery Square bike stands was supported by Nelson Pride Inc representative Daniel Jackson.
"We want this to be something that is safe and inclusive for everyone," he said.
Council's Infrastructure Committee unanimously agreed to revoke the pride crossing proposal and to instead install separate artworks on the bike sheds at an estimated cost of $8000. No designs or timeline have been confirmed by council as of yet.
Council's group manager for infrastructure, Alec Louverdis, confirmed that $5000 of the budget will be covered by Nelson's Youth Council as was initially proposed for the crossing last February with the remainder suggested to come from council's roading budget.
He said a further $2000 raised initially over Givealittle for the pride crossing would need to be discussed with teenage community organiser Sophie Weenick as to whether the funds will be returned or transferred to the bike shed project.
Louverdis was questioned by mayor Rachel Reese as to whether the proposed implementation of a pride crossing made in February 2021 was raised in accordance with the Local Government Act and council's standing orders.
Following a short adjournment, Louverdis confirmed the proposal was in line with the act. He said engagement selected had not been to the level he had undertaken in the report presented on Thursday.
Councillor O'Neill-Stevens apologised to the committee in which he admitted to making a "fatal flaw" in his pride crossing proposal during his debate.
"In initially progressing this I made the fatal flaw in looking around the country at the pride crossings popping up and believing that the needs of blind and low vision citizens had been considered. Unfortunately, the reality is New Zealand remains ignorant and unengaged," he said.
He said while this proposal "isn't perfect" he was "relieved" to have reached the conclusion of the decorated bike stands, thanking the low vision community for input and council staff for their mahi.
"I want to especially thank rangatahi, the LGBTQIA+ community members who reached out to me over the past year, especially for those who it was the first time for acknowledging their sexuality to someone other than themselves," he said.
O'Neill-Stevens said he was disappointed by the council's response to the onslaught of homophobic commentary from the public that resulted from the pride crossing announcement last year, specifically council removing their press release.
"Acceptance requires more than passivity. In a community that still harbours homophobic views, passivity lets it flourish," he said.
Mayor Reese agreed council could have handled the situation "better", extending her apologies to the rainbow community who had been subject to harmful comments as a result of the announcement.
Deputy mayor Judene Edgar acknowledged there is more work to be done by Nelson City Council in terms of inclusivity.
"We know there are a lot of important issues for the rainbow community such as gender-inclusive toilets and safe spaces issues which are raised over and over again. We need to acknowledge these as priorities across the organisation," she said.
