Stephen Bird is among Farm St residents to sign a petition against a proposed bus interchange in the street. Photo / George Novak
Stephen Bird is among Farm St residents to sign a petition against a proposed bus interchange in the street. Photo / George Novak
Farm St residents are fighting a proposal to put a permanent bus interchange in their Arataki street.
After years of research and multiple recent closed-door meetings, a Tauranga City Council report to be discussed todaysays Farm St is the "only feasible option" for a "bus facility" in Arataki.
It willdiscuss "working collaboratively" with AMP, the owner of Bayfair and a few other sections on the street, to explore putting a facility on Bayfair land.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council also preferred Farm St for the facility, which was needed to support the redesigned bus network.
A petition against the interchange signed by 71 residents in the area will be presented to a meeting of the city council's Urban Form and Transport Development committee this morning.
The petition was organised by teacher David Henderson, a Farm St resident of five years.
Henderson said the council had been considering putting a permanent interchange on Farm St for a few years and had commissioned multiple reports, but only started properly consulting with residents on Thursday.
He said it was "gut-wrenching" to attend a drop-in session then read in the agenda for today's meeting the council would be discussing a draft Memorandum of Understanding with AMP - a deal he did not hear mentioned in the session.
In his view, Farm St was too narrow and residential for buses and more traffic.
The street had "become a bit scary" since the temporary bus interchange was established.
Farm St hosts a temporary bus interchange behind Bayfair. File photo
While collecting signatures, he spoke to residents who had issues with the noise, vibrations and fumes from buses.
He said the council should consider other locations such as Girven Rd.
The Bay of Plenty Times put questions to the council about the memorandum but did not receive a response by deadline yesterday.
Strategy and growth general manager Christine Jones said the council was in discussions with AMP but nothing had been signed.
"The MOU will outline how we will work with Bayfair to explore options."
She said that during the drop-in session the council told attendees the status of work on the bus facility, "namely that we are currently in discussion with Bayfair to investigate the viability of a bus facility on Bayfair-owned land".
"The contents of the discussions are confidential so we can't share any more information at this point."
Regarding other consultation, Jones said consultants met with Farm St residents when looking at options for the bus facility.
The council had started to engage directly with residents at last week's drop-in session, and would go back to the community with responses to the suggestions they heard.
"Consultation with the community is a key element in any next steps we take."
She said the council stopped using the word "interchange" because research showed less than 30 per cent of passengers changed service at Bayfair.
Farm St residents Tim Mills and Stephen Bird were also worried about the street becoming more unsafe, especially for children using it to get to school.
Bird, an architect and resident of 13 years, said the lack of consultation, traffic volumes and vehicle speeds were his biggest concerns.
He said residents had been "kept in the dark" about changes that were altering the nature of the street.
"People should be able to have a say about what happens in their neighbourhood."
Mills had noticed the traffic increasing in his four years in Farm St.
He lived 100m from Bayfair but worried about sending his kids down the road to the mall due to the busyness of the street.
"There is no scope to make the road bigger but they want to put a lot more traffic on to it."
According to the report prepared by council staff for today's meeting, a facility on the southern side of Maunganui Rd was considered, but deemed not feasible after plans for an underpass were dropped in the Baypark to Bayfair project.
