A children's playground could be built on Tauranga's downtown waterfront as part of an exciting new initiative to get something happening sooner rather than later.
The bid to lift the profile of the waterfront comes as Tauranga City Council's big-picture plans for the area continue to grind through the publicly notified
resource consent process - with a late bid to give the waterfront a stronger commercial focus.
Cr Murray Guy revealed yesterday that the council would be receiving a proposal to spend some of the $400,000 put aside this year for the waterfront on a playground and harbourside walkway.
The playground could be built without the need for a consent while the walkway would need a non-notified earthworks consent.
Cr Guy, who was brought into the plan by Mayor Stuart Crosby, said the playground would be located on the northern side of the under-utilised children's fountain and water feature.
The playground would be fenced to stop children wandering off and falling into the harbour, while the 3.5m-wide walkway would start at the Dive Crescent end of the reclamation and bend around past the playground to terminate opposite Wharf St.
Cr Guy said the addition of the playground would make it a really family-friendly environment.
"There will be kids for Africa."
He said the mayor's small working party was formed to get some action on the ground.
It picked up on people's doubts about whether anything would ever happen on the waterfront.
Cr Guy said the plan represented what could be achieved at the least cost with minimum consents.
Staff said they did not envisage an issue with the earthworks consent.
There were already toilets there and it would add value to the fountain and green space.
The northern waterfront carpark would be reformatted to make it more attractive to motorists, he said.
A harbour front walkway was already part of the current big-picture resource consent application, so the only change to what could eventually happen on the waterfront was the playground.
