St Mary's Catholic School is applying to undertake a development on its 13th Avenue grounds to boost facilities and increase its roll.

Tauranga City Council is today holding a hearing on the project after the school lodged a resource consent application.

St Mary's Catholic School is seeking consent to expand.

The planned expansion of the school grounds.

In the development St Mary's proposes increasing teaching spaces from 16 to 21, building a new school library and boosting the school roll to 500 (determined July 1 each year) and lifting full time equivalent staff from 19 to 24.

It also includes additional on-site and on-street carparking, a new pick up/drop off zone and bus bay on 13th Ave; and covered walkways and landscaping.

St Mary's says the school was established in January 1942 and since 1996 its roll has been fluctuating between 290-460 students, with an average of 373.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Hamilton, which is the development's applicant, says the Catholic school network is subject to significant demand due to population growth in the Tauranga/Mount Maunganui area during the last 20 years.

'School rolls fluctuate term-to-term and year-to-year; however there have been times when the school has operated at full capacity in terms of teaching space.”

With the Ministry of Education approving a maximum roll increase from 410 to 500 students in July 2009, the school's application says the ministry has since granted substantial funding to the Catholic Diocese to construct various new school buildings and improvements on-site. Resource consent for a new school hall was granted and constructed in 2012.

'This application for further new buildings and site improvements is needed to complete necessary improvements to the school to accommodate the projected maximum student roll increase to 500,” says the application.

The proposed development plan shows:

• New pedestrian access to the school site off Harvey St
• A new on-site carparking area located in the north-western corner of the school site
• Existing hard paved areas with new marked car park spaces
• A new covered path connecting the new on-site carparking area in the north-western corner of the school site with the existing veranda on Block D
• Relocated cricket nets to the north of the existing sealed court area
• Removal/demolition of an existing relocatable classroom located between Block A and Block C, which will be replaced with a new 120m2 single storey library building
• Alterations to the existing hall building (Block C) to accommodate the equivalent of six teaching spaces;
• A new 250m2 single storey building to accommodate the equivalent of three teaching spaces;
• Removal of the existing toilet block located to the west of Block F
• The new pick up/drop off zone and bus bay on Thirteenth Avenue
• New pedestrian access steps located between Block B and Block E
• A new covered walkway connecting Block C, Block D, and the new single-storey building in between.

Consultation has been undertaken with a number of key stakeholders, including St Mary's Catholic School Board of Trustees and school community, neighbouring property owners and tangata whenua.

The school says the proposal represents an appropriate and positive change for the school; proposed traffic management improvements will alleviate existing traffic-related issues at the school, particularly during peak drop-off and pick-up times.

There were also suggestions for further mitigation measures to address traffic-related issues in the neighbourhood from school activities, including ‘no parking' lines near existing driveways on the southern side of 13th Ave, marked on street parking areas on the southern side of 13th Ave, and bollards and/or planting on the grass area of the road reserve on the southern side of 13th Ave.

Some residents consider the proposed new car park in the north-western corner of the school site to have an adverse effect on safety and convenience of the Grace Rd/Harvey St intersection, particularly during peak drop-off and pick-up times.

Tauranga City Council's planner report on the development says when submissions closed in early-February, a total of 15 were received with 10 opposed to the school's resource application, two didn't specify their stance but raised concerns and two supported the project.

A submission placed by a Harvey St couple had a petition signed by 37 parties from surrounding properties on Grace Rd, Burrows St, Harvey St, and 13th and 14th Avenues.

Concern raised include traffic flows and parking, loss of green space and noise, boundary lines along the harbour and stormwater disposal to the harbour.