Likely retention of green spaces greeted with joy

Protest leader Barry Coghlan is happy parcels of land along Takitimu Drive will most likely be withdrawn from sale. Photo / George Novak

The greenbelt bordering Takitimu Drive looks almost certain to be saved from housing developments after a big neighbourhood protest helped persuade the Tauranga City Council to drop its sale plans.

Mayor Stuart Crosby and councillors contacted by the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday backed a staff recommendation to retain the reserve-like stretch of land between 4th Ave and 8th Ave.

The recommendation, to be put to next Monday's council meeting, followed an outpouring of opposition from residents, including a petition signed by nearly 1100 people.

Mr Crosby said the properties had several layers of red tape and he was confident most councillors would vote to stop the sale of the eight parcels of land.

The council agreed in July to revisit the $28million surplus land sale plan adopted in 2012, which included the 1ha of land along Takitimu Drive valued at about $2million.

Mr Crosby said they would be doing due diligence on all the surplus land, including to look at staff costs sooner rather than later in the sales process. The Avenues land had already consumed a lot of staff time.

Fifth Ave resident Barry Coghlan, one of the protest leaders, was delighted at the recommendation. The council had taken a balanced view and concluded that selling the land was not something that would benefit Tauranga.

A striking feature of the campaign to stop the sale was how few residents even knew the council was planning to sell the land. And those who were aware had to hunt to find information, he said.

"A major lesson to come out of this should be to improve the quality of consultation."

Councillor Bev Edlin backed removing the land from the sale list, saying it was a lovely feature that had a whole lot of issues. "It is part of the gateway into the city." She defended going through the exercise after the council had inherited the sale process from the former council.

Councillor John Robson said he was not uncomfortable with the recommendation, saying the 2012 decision to sell had been an in-principle decision. "I don't think the work had been done to see if the numbers stacked up, along with everything else."

Councillor Rick Curach was "very uncomfortable" with the sale because the land had green space values beside a main entrance to the city.

Councillor Bill Grainger said the land was a green backdrop, driving into the city. After weighing everything up, he was leaning towards the recommendation.

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