Growth pressures on Tauranga City are so urgent the councillors were told they have to make the decisions now on four urban growth projects; Compact City, Te Tumu, Keenan Road and Tauriko West – rather than leaving them for the new council next month.

Councillor Catherine Stewart posed the question last week, which Mayor Stuart Crosby answered.

Keenan road land is expected to be developed in the next five years. Photo: Google maps.

'There's a lot of growth going on at the moment and we seriously need to get on with this. We are getting behind in shovel ready land for homes to be built on,” says Stuart.

'Any delay, and you could miss a whole construction season, not a few months but maybe two years, and lead-in time for some of these areas is quite significant, particularly Tauriko West, Keenan Road, and we need to keep the momentum going.”

The decision is a collaborative one with the city council, the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, and tangata whenua.

According to SmartGrowth projections, Tauranga City will require an additional 47,900 dwellings between 2013 and 2063.

As at June 30, 2013, there remained an estimated greenfield residential land supply for 13,200 dwellings in zoned greenfield areas.

Plus additional infill capacity of 5,150 dwellings; and potential for intensification to provide a further 2100 dwellings.

This provides a total supply capacity for 20,450 dwellings, which when deducted from the projected demand out to 2063 leaves a shortfall of 27,450 total dwellings.

City council general manager strategy, Christine Jones, says the decision provides land that will come to market around 2021.

'But there is still need for further land beyond that, so there is more work to be done around the settlement pattern after that point in time,” says Christine.

'The work that we have done now will inform that subsequent work, which will be an issue for the incoming council for the next lot of land beyond this tranch.”

Councillors John Robson says Smartgrowth is an unfortunate branding exercise, and should be thought about as strategic planning.

'I think what we are calling the 3B projects reflect smart strategic planning,” says John.

'This is an area where Tauranga, western bay and the regional council really are ahead of the rest of the country and that's in the strategic planning around the use of land. It's a way of balancing the demands of a very blind market with the affordability constraints of the local population.”

The current Smartgrowth is an improvement, it recognizes previous mistakes, is strongly evidence based and gives a balanced forward programme for the city, says John.

Rick Curach says the strategic planning is just common sense given that the land is close to retail, residential and commercial precincts.

The Tauriko land was suggested two years ago and with strong leadership the council could potentially saved itself a couple of years.

Matt Cowley says Bob Clarkson's proposal to put industrial land at the top of the ridge was bad urban planning to place an industrial area on a spot ideal for residential housing, but it was a very small pocket of land in a wider corridor that needs to be properly planned as a whole.

(Tauranga developer Bob Clarkson's initiative to develop Tauriko land incorporating affordable housing was knocked back by the city council two years ago.)

'As the whole corridor rather than just one little patch here for the sake of 300 affordable houses for the next ten years, which is not really consistently affordable,” says Matt.

Mayor Stuart Crosby says the Smartgrowth partnership leads the way linking transport and land development.

'We're still tidying up messes of the old National Roads Board because there was no link between land development and transport, and the classic case is when they put the state highway through Maungatapu with no or little engagement with the city of the day. And now we have got Bill's tunnel and other bits going through. That's what can happen if you do not link all the dots together.

'The Tauriko area is one area where we can fix up some issues around Cambridge Road and some other areas, but also provide for the future.”