A handful of large roadside signs asking people to choose between a clean harbour or the Hundertwasser Art Centre have popped up around Whangarei.
The signs appear to be a direct response to pro-Hundertwasser signs that were put up by a group of Whangarei businessmen and artists about a month ago.
The Whangarei District Council gave permission for the "Whangarei needs Hundertwasser" signs to go up, saying at the time that it would consider all requests to erect signs equally.
The council said it had not been approached for permission by the creators of the latest signs to appear.
The council also noted that the submissions period for the 2012-22 Draft Long Term Plan closed on Monday April 23.
Just under 2000 submissions were received, the council said, with the hot topics being the Hundertwasser Art Centre, the Gomez Rd motor sports park, wastewater and the proposed sports fields at Springs Flat.
Three years ago when the last Long Term Plan was consulted upon, the council received 2500 submissions.
One of the men who put the most recent signs up, Roger Brookes, said if he had to choose, he would opt for a clean harbour over the art centre.
Mr Brookes said he believed the cost of the art centre will end up higher than the $8 million budgeted in the Long Term Plan and only a referendum would conclusively answer the question of whether the people of Whangarei want the centre.
Mr Brookes said that he was not the main instigator behind the latest signs and had merely helped erect them.
An unscientific poll run on the Northern Advocate's website asked if the council should build a Hundertwasser Art Centre at the Town Basin. The poll received 853 votes over two weeks - 66 per cent of respondents said yes, 33 per cent said no.