The Hawke's Bay Opera House plaza has had ongoing design problems but Hastings councillors are getting closer to signing off on a new development design that should solve some of the issues.
A concept plan by Hawke's Bay-based design practice, CREATE Ltd, was presented to the council on Thursday last week with four options for a new roof to be built over the plaza, along with other design changes.
A canvas retractable roof was put on in 2007 but was coming to the end of its useful life, council property assets and project manager John Jiang told the councillors.
It had issues with rain and wind getting through the gaps, and the whole area also had problems with acoustics and it was hard to control the temperature and ventilation, he said.
At the meeting councillors held off on choosing a final roof design, the options ranging in price from $2.1 million to $2.45 million, until they had met with the architects to help them decide on the best version, as there were still concerns.