Incorporating a city museum into a redeveloped city centre is just one of the options being considered as part of the planning process that Tauranga City Council agreed to this week.

Council involvement in the concept of a museum hasn't been endorsed on record since the overwhelming defeat of adherents of the $23 million over-water proposal in 2007.

Council is getting round to deciding whether to repair or rebuild their HQ on Willow Street in Tauranga. Photo: File.

Since then, museum stalwarts have been promised land at Cliff Road - if they could build the facility without council funding.

And Mayor Stuart Crosby says including a museum in the planning process is no guarantee it will survive.

'We are starting off with a clean slate,” says Stuart. 'Could a museum be integrated into a new updated precinct is a question that will be asked.”

Also to be considered is the proposal to open out the space into a central city plaza, offering pedestrian access through to the waterfront.

'Out of the problem has come a great opportunity,” adds Stuart.

The council is hoping to have narrowed down the options and have a confirmed preference by June next year.

City councillors committed to planning the future of their leaky, mouldy headquarters this week, in one of the shortest council meetings of the triennium.

Most of the 400 council staff were evacuated as soon as the toxic stachybotrus mould was confirmed in December 2014, and are now housed in rented offices around the city.

Investigations since have found that the problem is not an easy, nor a cheap one, to fix and that knocking the existing buildings down and rebuilding is a genuine option.

The council decided this week how those decisions will be approached and made.

'The idea is to go from a large number of options to a preferred option and to take it through a rigorous process to do so,” says project business case consultant Edward Guy.

The programme business case examines each option with three tests: Is it commercially viable? Is it affordable with present funding? And is it achievable and can the council successfully deliver it?

Councillors voted with little discussion, and John Robson says he's comfortable with the approach to what is a very complex project.

'It's a way of working that might be standard operating procedure for other organisations,” says John, 'but I believe it is a step up for us in terms of how we are looking at this project.

'And it does deserve this level of project management.

'I believe it is a very good starting point for what is probably the biggest project this council will undertake in the next few years.”