Renewed call to redevelop Tauranga park into community asset

Welcome Bay Community Centre manager Anna Larsen wants Owens Park redeveloped. Photo / File

A potential site for a future supermarket in Welcome Bay could be better utilised as a park or reserve to the benefit of the whole city, a community leader says.

At a recent Tauranga City Council community and culture committee meeting, councillors heard a number of public submissions about the draft Tauranga Reserves Management Plan.

The plan outlines how the council proposes to look after its network of more than 290 parks and reserves in the city.

The council received 264 submissions, and 26 individuals and groups spoke to their submissions at the meeting.

Among those who addressed the councillors was Welcome Bay Community Centre manager Anna Larsen, who called on the council to consider redeveloping Owens Park.

Larsen said while any future proposals for Owens Park were on hold until the completion of the Welcome Bay/Ohauiti planning study, commercial entities had indicated the park, on the corner of Welcome Bay Rd and Arawata Ave, was unlikely to be chosen as a supermarket site.

She said it, therefore, made sense for the council to begin restoring it to a usable recreational space.

Larsen suggested the 2ha park could include a children's playground, a picnic area, fitness equipment, a pump track, a walking, jogging and biking track, a multi-use games area, a community garden and a sports field.

Alternatively, the council could consider transforming the site into a valuable wetland conversation area, she said.

"But Owens Park needs to be drained first as it is not even mowable let alone useful and it's currently a waste of space."

In an interview with the Bay of Plenty Times after the meeting, Larsen said neither project would be cheap, but either one of them could create a unique educational and recreational area of huge benefit to the whole city, not just Welcome Bay.

Brigid McDonald, the council's city development manager, told the Bay of Plenty Times Owens Park was still one of the potential sites for further investigation for a supermarket development, along with Waitaha Reserve.

"Councillors decided in July 2017 to progress with the review of a potential supermarket in Welcome Bay in alignment with the Welcome Bay and Ohauiti Planning Study."

The outcome of the study was expected next year, she said.

Deliberations by councillors on all the submissions to the council's draft Tauranga Reserves Management Plan will be held next month.