Plans are in place for a supermarket in the Welcome Bay area, but a debate has been sparked within council members as to where it would be located.
Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless says he supports the idea of having a supermarket in the area, but disagrees with the suggested locations.
'The idea came to the urban form committee the other day and they're doing further work in seeing what's available, but my great preference for them would be for privately owned land to be zone commercial, not council reserve.
'At one stage they were looking at the possibility on council reserved land, and my personal feeling is that's not appropriate for a supermarket.
Greg says he believes it's not the council's priority to find land for a supermarket.
'They're still doing further work on where might be appropriate site should a supermarket then wish to set up, but all my life, councils have put in things like roads and reserves and parks and water but they've never sort of gone that far down the track of actually providing a supermarket and I don't think that's councils role.
'They did look at some parks, I would not have been happy with any park.
'It's publicly owned land, and I don't like the idea of that being put for a commercial purpose.”
Supermarkets across Tauranga traditionally not the council's responsibility, and recreational council areas are not a suitable supermarket site, says Greg.
'What supermarkets do and what they've done in every other part of the city is they bought land around and then they've set up a supermarket. That's what happened at Brookfield, that's what happened at Pak'nSave and it's what happened at Countdown.
'I'm not sure why Welcome Bay is particularly different.”
9 comments
Agreed
Posted on 18-03-2019 13:31 | By FRANKS
I agree with the Mayor........it is private enterprise.......over to them. The Council has enough stuff ups to fix without any more issues !!!!!!!!
The worry here...
Posted on 18-03-2019 14:19 | By morepork
… is that developers would even THINK it is OK to use public land for this. Greg is right. If there was NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE, then a binding public referendum would need to decide if the community affected were prepared to have THEIR land used for this purpose.
No To Commercial Sales
Posted on 18-03-2019 15:04 | By tabatha
We have seen TCC sell many community owned properties and thank you Greg for saying no to Reserve land. At last voices are coming a bit stronger from the elected ones. Still some who need to listen and not use personal ideas.
Quite right
Posted on 18-03-2019 15:42 | By Slim Shady
Which Councillors have the opposing view?
Come on
Posted on 18-03-2019 16:22 | By DJBP
“The idea came to the urban form committee the other day and they’re doing further work in seeing what’s available". This idea has been debated for some time now. Council has even run public consultation events to see which site the public preferred, if any. I agree that it should not be built on public council property. Why is council still debating this?
Mayor quite correct. NO to Reserve land.
Posted on 18-03-2019 17:42 | By Murray.Guy
City Council staff are still visiting the prospect of using public Reserve space as Ward Councillors promised this has an election gimmick, along with Deputy Mayor Kelvin Clout. As they have all but destroyed any credibility during this term those advocating the use of public Reserve land would have you believe there is no other land suitable, which of course is totalled bollocks. The most significant recent example is on Pyes Pa Road, and the Gate Pa Shopping Centre. Bob Clarkson identified an appropriate location then set about securing the land, securing the zone change necessary. The role of the city council is to work with any prospective developer, rather than, as has happened to Bob Clarkson at Tauriko, put up roadblocks.
At last
Posted on 18-03-2019 18:42 | By Told you
It’s good to see the Mayor taking some leadership in this situation,up to now it appeared he had no control what the council got up to,oh I forgot it’s election year.
Simple Solution
Posted on 19-03-2019 08:34 | By Joella
It absolutely astounds me that people in our community can be so dull minded as to not realise that we have an existing absolutely appalling shopping centre in Welcome Bay that needs a bull dozer put through it and an new supermarket and retail put in its place. We have the site, pressure needs to be put on the owners to provide a more suitable environment for the community, something that is not like the back streets of a third world country. The recreational area to the corner of Waitaha rd is not even used effectively and could be relocated or altered to still accomodate it. The community centre could also be intergrated into a new facility. Cmon its not that bloody hard stop being so bureaucratic and get something done.
Keep green spaces, use existing
Posted on 21-03-2019 12:50 | By WestieMum
So pleased to hear that we aren't going to have to sacrifice our green spaces! How backward thinking would that be!? I agree Joella - there is the perfect spot where the current shopping centre is - flatten the lot, including the pub, and with parking underneath seem as it's a sloping site (perfect for that), and incorporate all that's there now with a supermarket. Perhaps the whole area from Waitaha Road corner, through the vacant land towards the school. Give the church a new building too. That whole shopping centre access it really bad, it's a wonder there aren't more accidents there. We seem to be the poor cousins out in our gorgeous next of the woods. With more subdivisions opening up it would mean less of us on the roads getting to a supermarket! :)
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