Concept designs have been drawn up for the larger facility which would cost approximately $1.2 million.
Council staff have suggested the project be funded by increasing loan funding to $930,000, bringing forward $237,000 of crematorium renewal funding currently planned to be spent over the next six financial years, and using $60,000 from a crematorium reserve.
Under the plan cremation fees would increase 22 per cent to $761.
Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said the council had a number of options to consider and he expected them to be fully discussed at tomorrow's meeting.
One factor in the mix was a plan by a private operator to build a commercially- run crematorium in the district.
Mr Yule said funeral directors had told the council they supported the council's plans for retaining a public facility because they didn't want to be "captured by one private operator in the market".
Council staff had put forward the option of a facility that kept to the earlier $750,000 budget but would involve a project that would be "significantly decreased" and offer less services.
That was something councillors might discuss tomorrow, Mr Yule said.
Aside from the crematorium project, the council plans to spend an estimated $2.7 million over the next 13 years strengthening nine other earthquake-prone civic buildings, and is also considering what could be an $18 million to $20 million fix to the city's Opera House complex.
An earlier round of expensive repairs to the Opera House was supposed to bring it up to earthquake code but the facility was closed last year after engineers deemed it a risk.
Mr Yule said he did not expect a repeat of that issue with the crematorium because standards had risen significantly following the Christchurch earthquakes, which occurred after the previous Opera House repairs.
"The whole thinking has changed and what we do at the crematorium will be done to that latest thinking."
