Cr Bill Faulkner Faulkners Corner www.sunlive.co.nz

At Strategy and Policy Committee, Bob Clarkson addressed the elected members in its public forum section on the subject of affordable housing.

Bob told us that contrary to rumours he had gone to Parliament to beat Winston Peters, it had in fact been to promote affordable housing for young couples.

He hadn't made much headway, he said.

With rents of $300-400-500 he didn't know how many people managed to live.

Fiddling with house costs only altered prices by 5-10 per cent and what was needed was a dramatic lowering of prices, which was only achievable by slicing land prices together with discounts made possible by bulk material purchase to build the houses.

He proposed building around 150-200 affordable homes on land he owned behind the Tauriko service station running down to the Wairoa River.

Fifty per cent of the housing would be affordable at $280,000 including GST, mixed with medium and upmarket houses.

Affordable homes would be 160sqm with three bedrooms and two car garaging on a minimum 400sqm section.

Question time

In response to my questions he said he would guarantee completion of the fully self contained project, no matter what happened, in order to insulate and protect ratepayers from any responsibility.

He would either hook into the Southern Pipeline or put in his own system for wastewater; likewise water and storm water systems.

He had approval in principle, he said, from Transit to build a two-lane roundabout near the Tauriko service station to provide access.

If council was serious about affordable housing then this was an opportunity to provide support in principle too.

He would work through council's requirements via a private plan change, the same process The Lakes went through to arrive at a detailed acceptable plan.

Please not Smartgrowth

You have to admire Bob's enthusiasm and energy and what he said he was seeking was council's political support.

Committee chairman David Stewart said that it should go to Smartgrowth and staff for further investigation.

I took issue with that, that can be the kiss of death. That can come after political support or otherwise.

David tried to fob me off, which as chairman he can do, so I gave notice of a notice of motion to the next full council meeting on February 20.

I lodged this at the end of the meeting and asked for elected member support for Bob's proposal in principle.

Bob says he can be underway in six months if the red tape can be peeled away.

Mayor Stuart Crosby was concerned about fairness to all parties, particularly competitors.

Bob said market forces should prevail and if other developers had paid too much for their land then that was their problem. Not council's.

I don't like the chances of the six month time frame – it is imperative that ratepayers don't get left to pick up the pieces in the event of an unforeseen failure.

Too often local government misses out on opportunities due to caution, red tape, slow process and lessons learned from being burned historically. But those are considerations not reasons to not pursue the opportunity. That's how I see this proposal.

During his address Bob said he was lucky to have 50 weeks holiday a year, during which he built buildings, houses and developed land.

The two weeks work he described as ‘when he accompanied his wife on her holidays' which were in his words 'bloody hard work”.

Chop happy

On other matters, the Vegetation and Tree Management Policy was adopted.

This allows commonsense and flexibility over past tree policy documents where it was virtually impossible to deal with an offending tree.

Swimming in debt

The joint TCC/TCAL Draft Aquatics Strategy was approved for your perusal and consultation.

The (huge) loss leaders, Memorial Pool, Otumoetai & Greerton are a big problem financially, but serve a public need.

Baywave is doing well and has traded its way remarkably well requiring minimal ratepayer subsidy on operational expenditure.

The Mount Hot Saltwater Pools are a money spinner and despite all the hoo-hah (justified!) over the recent refit, will again make money.

You do have to do maintenance and recent events shouldn't be repeated.

There is a need for a quantum change as a result of this debacle and one is in the wings as council considers its options in confidential.

Tug it into town

The Marine Precinct Proposal to replace the 600 ton slipway lost to make way for the harbour bridge is another initiative by this council to stimulate and invigorate the marine sector in Tauranga.

After years of investigation, hampered by an economic downturn, the Taskforce is looking at a 300 tonne travelift facility in conjunction with marine sector representatives.

This basic infrastructure is capital intensive with no real return on investment.

Options for funding do not include ratepayers and there is no budget in the three/Ten Year Plan.

Hairy park, not a trail

There is huge international interest, elected members were told by Creative Tauranga manager Tracey Ruddick-Gudsell, in the Hairy Maclary display proposal.

After a year of meetings it has been decided not to have a Harry Maclary trail, but to have one centralised display on the waterfront.

The display, to cost $800,000 will be funded by private donation including a $150,000 maintenance fund to be lodged with council.

Characters will be cast in bronze and will be about 30 per cent bigger than real size.

High priority

Girven Road roundabout is top of the list for NZTA (formally Transit) to deal with and announcements of a solution are expected in March.

Comfort for veterans

Last week's column about war veterans' overseas travel to commemorate events drew some comment.

Apparently business class is now available to the veterans, paid by the taxpayers – the very least we can do!

Supermarket call too early

Media reports of a new supermarket at Bureta on the old Trust Hotel site are a bit premature.

Council has not even received a consent application as far as elected members know, let alone approved it.

Perry Foundation, which is a city partner, picked up this property, assets and business from Tauranga Charitable Trust for $1 on the understanding that the good work of the Tauranga Charitable Trust in the Tauranga area would continue.

Hopefully the proceeds of a sale will remain in Tauranga to further the charitable work that was/is intended.

This week's mindbender is an Ethiopian proverb: 'When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion.”