The Tauranga City Council administration building on Willow St. Photo / File
The Tauranga City Council administration building on Willow St. Photo / File
In a day-long meeting yesterday, Tauranga City Council's Urban Form and Transport Committee worked through a wide variety of topics from natural hazards to bus facilities in Arataki.
This is a non-exhaustive digest of some of the big discussions and decisions.
Transport funding
A race against time is under wayto decide what transport projects Tauranga will submit for Government funding later this year.
The work was led by the Western Bay of Plenty Transport System Plan, which started a year ago with $3m funding from Tauranga City Council.
It has made some high-powered hires to get it over the line, including former Auckland Council chief operating officer Dean Kimpton, who came on earlier this year as the independent governance group chairman, and civil engineer Neil Mason, who arrived six weeks ago as the programme director.
The project follows on from the 50-year sub-regional transport and growth plan approved by the three councils in the western Bay of Plenty last month - the result of the Urban Form and Transport Initiative (UFTI).
The system plan will work out what specific projects need to happen first to make that UFTI plan a reality, and build up detail around the business cases.
The project's recommendations were expected to form Tauranga's contribution to the Regional Land Transport Plan, and must be drafted by September 1.
Concerns were raised in the meeting about the lack of opportunity for the general public to have a say in the plan before it is submitted, as well as where the money will come from.
Former Auckland City chief operating officer, Dean Kimpton in 2017. Photo / File
Hazards
A major review of Tauranga's vulnerability to natural hazards has identified the need for an estimated $900m worth of resilience work around important infrastructure.
In an overview of the research presented to the meeting, the council heard some 300 engineering projects have been identified to deal with hazard hotspots around the city.
The hotspots were in places vulnerable to multiple types of hazard and featuring critical assets. The resilience work would aim to reduce the impact of hazards such as flooding, or make the recovery after such an event faster.
Half of the projects were vulnerable to four or more hazards. Twenty projects included a "retreat" option, where it may be better to move the asset.
The council was expected to start considering and prioritising the resilience projects as part of it's Long-Term Plan 2021-31 development.
City plan
The council is gearing up to start a seven-year process to review the City Plan - a foundation planning document for development in the city.
Council staff estimated the review project would cost $19.7m, with $10.8m of that being staff salaries, $3.7m for external resources and $2m set aside for court appeals along with other costs. Most of that money was already budgeted.
Staff presented a plan for how the review would be tackled in six phases of work, including talking to the community and tangata whenua.
City Plan reviews happen every 10 years. The last plan review started in 2008 and the plan became operative in 2013. The council aimed to notify the new plan by April 2024.
Arataki bus facility
The future of a controversial bus facility at Arataki remains undetermined.
The committee has agreed to have some basic concept designs drawn up for two sites - on the Bayfair campus off Farm St and the St John Ambulance site off Girven Rd - at a cost of about $100,000. The designs would be enough to do some costings.
But elected members have also asked for work that could challenge some of the fundamental aspects of any future decision to build the multi-million dollar facility.
They agreed to talk to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council about how public transport was managed in the city after multiple councillors expressed concerns the system was not working.
Currently, the regional council operates the bus network and the city council does infrastructure such as bus lanes and shelters.
The committee also agreed to hold its decision until the data from the new Bee Card integrated ticketing system was available.
The council has been debating where to put a permanent bus facility in Arataki for about three years. Farm St, where there is a temporary facility, was favoured but has met fierce opposition from the community in that street.
