Palmerston North City Council consulting on its 10-Year Plan

Palmerston North City Council says it needs to make the city easy to get around.

If mayor Grant Smith suddenly plonked himself down at your dining room table and wanted to know what you thought the council should and shouldn't do, what would you say?

While the terms vision, goals and strategies might be enough to make you reach for a second helping of apple crumble, what Palmerston North City Council is really saying during its 10-Year Plan consultation is "what is your main idea for Palmy 2021-31?"

The council is seeking to balance aspiration and affordability and wants suggestions on what it should stop doing, not start doing, do less of, do more of or do sooner, and totally new things to do.

While it has chosen to not pick out particular projects or services to ask residents about, the Guardian is providing a smorgasbord for you.

The council's vision remains the same - small-city benefits, big-city ambition, as does its five goals.

Today we will look at the plans for the first two goals.

Goal one is the council wants Palmy to be an innovative and growing city. Budget constraints mean it is proposing to keep the current level of funding and support for economic development and city growth.

However, it has identified it needs to increase the amount it spends renewing and maintaining transport and infrastructure. It says it hasn't spent as much on roads as it should have and, as a result, the quality of road surfaces has been deteriorating over the past five years, due to more heavy vehicles and poor underlying ground conditions.

It is also proposing to redevelop the urban bus terminal and prepare a business case for a strategic ring road to get heavy traffic off urban streets.

And now for the meaty part of the smorgasbord. The council is proposing the average rates increase for 2021-22 be 6.9 per cent. That equates to an extra $3.48 a week for the average residential ratepayer.

The council's second goal is a creative and exciting city. One of its priorities for this goal is for Palmy to develop a national reputation as an exciting city with plenty to do at night and on the weekends.

It is proposing to design and develop a signature event that reflects and connects the region and celebrates its strengths.

The council has assumed it will receive $500,000 in year one and $800,000 each year after that from Mercury Energy to lease land for Mercury's wind farm in the council-owned Turitea Reserve. The council intends to use this money to help fund the operating costs of city reserves.

The council owns nine earthquake-prone buildings: Te Manawa, Caccia Birch House, Regent on Broadway, the Civic Administration Building, Central Library, Kelvin Grove crematorium, wastewater treatment plant, Keith St power station, and Square Edge. By law, these have to be strengthened or demolished over the next 15 years.

The council intend to strengthen them and has budgeted $150m for this over the 15 years.

As part of its capital programme, the council is proposing to build a new grandstand
at Central Energy Trust Arena. This would cover the embankment opposite the current grandstand. The proposed 10-Year Plan says a new grandstand would increase the seating at the Arena, provide a better spectator experience, and make it more likely Palmy could attract bigger events, such as tier 3 rugby games.

Its total cost would be $13.5m. The council is budgeting for $9m of this coming from external fundraising, and it would borrow the remaining $4.5m.

+ INFO There are many ways you can have your say on the 10-Year Plan. Here's two - ring 356 8199 and ask for your submission to be recorded over the phone, or email your ideas to submission@pncc.govt.nz.