Council has agreed to progress with the review of a potential supermarket development in Welcome Bay in alignment with the Welcome Bay and Ohauiti Planning Study.

At the Community and Culture Committee meeting yesterday, it was decided that a potential supermarket development in Welcome Bay would continue to be reviewed at Waitaha Reserve and Owens Park, while Waipuna Park would be removed from further consideration.

Councillor Terry Molloy, Chair of the Community and Culture committee, proposed that the decision to progress with the two sites should be undertaken in parallel and alignment with the Welcome Bay and Ohauiti Planning Study – an investigation into how Council can address the current issues faced by these areas to accommodate further growth – that is currently underway and due to be completed in six to nine months.

'The decision to progress in alignment with the planning study will enable us to gain a better understanding of the area's potential to accommodate additional growth, and will give us further clarity on how a supermarket may fit in with future plans for the area," says Terry.

Council's next steps will be to assemble legal and procurement elements to understand how it can obtain credible and accurate concept information that will allow for a more detailed and informed community engagement period to occur, should the Committee wish to pursue the investigation further.

'We remind the community that even though we are progressing with the review of Waitaha Reserve and Owens Park there is no commitment from Council that we will use Council-owned land for the development of a supermarket," says acting city development manager Karen Healey.

Once the planning study has been completed, the outcome of the study and the findings from the review of the two sites will be presented to elected members for further consideration.

Between 10 April and 2 June, Council engaged with the Welcome Bay community to seek feedback on whether they supported a supermarket being built on Council-owned land.

A total of 1937 responses were received, with 66.5 per cent in support of the potential development.

Of those in support, 56.3 per cent indicated preference for Waitaha Reserve, 25.3 per cent for Owens Park, and 18.4 per cent for Waipuna Park.