Time to consult on Napier civic building's future

The Napier Public Library and council building. Photo/File

The Napier City Council wants to hear from the community on the future of Napier's two civic administration buildings.

The buildings, the Civic Building and the Library Building, have been assessed as earthquake prone by independent consultants Strata Group. The Civic Building has attained 10 per cent of New Building Standards while the Library Building is assessed at 15 per cent.

"While this has not been great news, it has presented us with the opportunity to reassess the building configuration and how we might use this large site more efficiently," said Napier Mayor Bill Dalton.

"Council's priority is to meet the growing needs of our customers, and to do that we need a friendly, usable and accessible space.

"But another job of a council is to improve the look, feel and vitality of our city, so this problem also allows us an opportunity to potentially reinvigorate the Civic Area where our buildings are currently located."

The council has developed a Statement of Proposal in accordance with section 83 of the Local Government Act 2002.

The proposal relates to the site currently occupied by the Civic Administration Building which the council would like the opportunity to divest.

All council activities and staff (including at Napier's City Library) can fit onto one half of the site.

The proposal is that the Napier City Council will have the option to divest, either by long-term lease or sale, the site on which the Civic Administration Building is currently located, to a private developer for commercial development.

Now, the council wants the community's opinions on this proposal. A public meeting, which will cover the detail of the proposal, as well as more information on where council services will be temporarily housed until refurbishment is complete, will be held on Tuesday, October 10, at MTG Century Theatre, at 5:30pm.

More details on the Statement of Proposal, including the submission form, are available on the website www.napier.govt.nz keyword #councilbuildings from tomorrow.