Tauranga City Council is asking the Ōtūmoetai, Matua, Brookfield, Bellevue and Judea communities what they want the future of their area to look like.

Take me to the future: Ōtūmoetai 2050 will use interactive maps, webinars and in-person community sessions to help develop a 30-year plan to support growth in the area and ensure it has enough houses, suitable ways for people to get around and community spaces to support wellbeing.

Tauranga is projected to grow by around 78,500 residents by 2063 and will need approximately 34,400 new houses to be built, says Commission Chair Anne Tolley.

'Central Government has given us the job of facilitating growth across Tauranga. This includes enabling more housing to be built at greater densities (number of houses per hectare) and heights within existing urban areas such as the city centre, Te Papa Peninsula and the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula.

Moving around and keeping safe in our community.

'Population growth will occur across our city, but particularly in this area, because its central location, proximity to the water, green spaces, and other commercial/retail centres make it a great place to live.”

This means the suburbs of Ōtūmoetai, Matua, Brookfield, Bellevue and Judea will see big changes over the next 30 years, says Anne.

Drop a pin directly on a location on any of the online interactive maps, with comments or suggestions.

'This project is about understanding what people love about this part of the city and how we can enable more people to live here, while still retaining the qualities and characteristics that make it so special.”

Until the end of April, people can tell the council what they think should be better or different using online interactive maps.

The five maps look at:

• future commercial/retail centres
• public transport
• walkways and cycleways
• community amenities and facilities
• and feeling safe in the community.

Tauranga City Council's Programme Director of Urban Communities, Carl Lucca, says people in the Ōtūmoetai Peninsula have indicated that these are some of the areas they want improved, through feedback to surveys such as the Whakahou Taketake Vital Update.

'We now want to look at these in more detail with Ōtūmoetai Peninsula residents. To take part, people can drop a pin directly on a location on any of our online interactive maps, with comments or suggestions about things they like/don't like about their neighbourhood. They can also see what other people are saying,” Carl explains.

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Residents and community groups are also welcome to email or post their feedback to the project team.

Feedback will be collected and fed into a draft plan – also known as a ‘spatial plan' – that people will be able to provide further feedback on later in the year.

A series of online webinars and in-person community sessions will be held in Matua and Brookfield in March and April to enable people to ask the project team questions.

For more information and to access the online interactive maps visit: www.tauranga.govt.nz/otumoetai2050