Today's Tauranga City Council meeting held behind closed doors while councillors deliberate two issues; the result of the Plan Change 25 hearing and shortlisting the contractors vying for the Civic Heart development.

The Hearing Commissioner's decision on Plan change 25 is being discussed behind closed doors to enable the council to privately talk about a live legal issue, as submitters have the right of appeal to the Environment Court.

'After that's decided that will be notified,” says Mayor Greg Brownless today.

While Plan change 25 focusses on land use changes at Wairakei and Papamoa East, the effects will be city wide because it provides for the addition of Special Housing Areas to areas that currently have different zoning.

Plan Change 25 was forced on the city council by a cascade of planning decisions dating back to 2011, when the original rezoning of the then rural land for urban development was incorporated into the City Plan under Plan Change 44.

There were 'issues of consent compliance around interpretation of the original provisions” according to the council's backgrounder on the issue.

Also expectations of the type and scale of urban development within Wairakei changed from a high density population area to a more conventional suburban development.

Plan Change 2 (Wairakei Urban Growth Area) was supposed to fix all that, and was notified on October 5 2013. It was intended to simplify provisions of the Wairakei Urban Growth Area and align the provisions with those applying to other urban growth areas, while keeping infrastructure standards specific to the area.

Concerns were raised that consultation was inadequate, and the plan change was placed on hold while the council decided what to do.

Since then a number of Special Housing Areas were gazetted in the Wairakei area including on land not zoned for residential use. And there has been a shift in the additional height areas – which is a significant change in circumstances from when Plan Change 2 was originally prepared.

There were 54 submissions.

Plan change 25 rezones the Papamoa East Employment land (excluding land around the Papamoa East Interchange) to Wairakei Residential; Relocates and resizes Wairakei Neighbourhood Centre Zones; Provides for Medium Rise Plan Areas in the Wairakei Residential Zone; and rezones Active Open Space land to Wairakei Residential; and removes the need for a Comprehensive Development consent in the Wairakei Residential Zone to provide a planning framework similar to other residential zones in the city.

The other issue to be decided by the Tauranga City council today is the shortlist of contractors who have expressed interest in building the City Heart project, a new council administration building, with possibly the later addition of a library, performance centre etc.

'We are narrowing down the numbers,” say Mayor Greg Brownless.

'The aim is to keep it competitive. I'm pretty sure just narrowing down from a wider field.”

He believes there are about eight expressions of interest to be considered, a mix of local and out of town contenders.

'It's the next step in a long process,” says Greg.