New city suburbs on agenda for Tauranga

Mayor Stuart Crosby says Tauranga City Council is set to expand the rural and residential limits to cater for rapid growth in the city.

A meeting is be held in August through the Growth Management Strategy Plan in conjunction with the Western Bay of Plenty Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council and the Te Whenua Group to open up two new suburbs.

"The two main areas under consideration at the meeting will obviously be Papamoa into Te Tumu which is already recognised and well planned," said Mr Crosby.

"The second areas are extending The Lakes up into Keenan Rd as well as what we call Tauriko West which is on the other side of the State Highway and the Wairoa River."

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The meeting would be "very significant" and would involve "high-level decision-making", that would impact on the Tauranga City Council in terms of providing infrastructure to open up land to developers.

"Our role is to do the high level structure planning... the big roads, water, waste water, storm water and parks and reserves so that is a lot of work and a lot of money that is going in our budget this year," said Crosby.

"It is really critical we work with the developers because they do all the local services and local development but the big infrastructure we obviously supply and that is paid back by the development contribution."

The process was incredibly difficulty and required a lot of analysis and financial management to deliver the infrastructure to get the land ready for homes to built on, he said.