Tauranga City Council's next step on the road to a new council building is widening in scope, with the city councillors voting to establish a Heart of the City technical advisory group to carry the project forward.

Expanding the terms of reference to include the central city area between Eleventh Avenue and Marsh Street is in response to public feedback on the Civic Space Options Project – when the council was asking for public support for building a new administration building.

The TAG will report to the City Transformation committee and council with its recommendations.

Membership will be five to seven people with expertise in architecture, urban design, engineering, the arts and culture. The positons will be advertised locally and nationally.

But that's not big enough for Mount Maunganui resident Max Lewis, who told councillors during the public forum that the strategy is too narrow and it needs to be international.

The current strategy is narrowly focused, lacks vision and is misleading to the community, says Max.

The CBD concept drawings show the central city precinct without cars or restricted parking areas or parking meters – yet the strategy is silent about removing vehicles from the business district.

Max also fears handing the project over to a TAG will prevent residents having a proper voice on a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Max urged the council to follow an approach similar to that of the New South Wales Government when it initiated an open-ended international design competition in 1956 for the Sydney Opera House, and appointed an international jury to select a short list for public vote.

Later in the meeting, city transformation committee chair councillor Larry Baldock agreed with Max's hope that the process will result in something iconic for Tauranga, 'something you can put on a postcard”.

The TAG's wider outlook is because of the realisation that key problems for the Tauranga CBD include a lack of cohesion and poor amenity in the central city which is reducing the city's ability to attract locals, workers, visitors and business to engage and invest.

And that a failure to accelerate cultural, commercial and inner-city residential development is compromising the city's ability to exploit major growth opportunities for the city and region.

The Civic Space Options project focused geographically on the Civic precinct. The Heart of the City encompasses the wider City Centre Strategy and the developing City Centre Spatial Framework.

In his review of the Civic Heart Master Plan, as part of the peer review, director of place shaping for Panuku Development in Auckland, Rod Marler, suggested the role of an advisory group which could act as a sounding board for discussing possibilities, opportunities, design directions and / or processes to deliver the vision and goals of the Council's City Centre Strategy.

The council approved the establishment of the Heart of the City Project, adopted the programme governance approach and the technical advisory group terms of reference on Larry Baldock's recommendation.

Four other recommendations were left, to give new councillors time to get their head around things over the break, says Larry.

These include a decision to endorse the previous council approach to procuring the new civic administration building and surrounding open space.

Completion of the city centre spaces and places framework, and the adoption of the civic centre cultural facilities business case terms of reference as previously proposed.