Land rezoning would pave way for rugby facility

A new master plan for Park Island will cater to the growth of popular sporting codes. Photo / Supplied

Residential Napier land could be rezoned to allow for a redesign of Park Island's sporting hubs, and a new high performance rugby facility.

Yesterday the Napier City Council's strategy and infrastructure committee adopted the Park Island Master Plan 2016, and agreed to initiate a district plan change to rezone its northern sports hub to meet the plan's objectives.

Most plan changes are in the northern sports hub - including reducing the number of fields, increasing the number of artificial turfs, additional car parking, and the removal of 12 tennis courts.

Also included was the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union's planned high performance facility and training field.

In November the union signed a deed of agreement with the council for the transfer of 1600sq m of land at McLean Park, currently owned by HBRU, for 8000sq m of land at the Northern Sports Hub - where they hope to build a high-performance sporting centre, shared by the Magpies and community.

The first move in the process will see the construction of the rugby union's administration office and training centre. A "game standard" training field and a half field would also be needed.

Yesterday HBRU chief executive Mike Bishop said they were excited about the planned facility, which the committee's decision yesterday would progress.

"We have the designs drawn and are costing these at the moment, and will proceed with construction as soon as possible," he said.

He did not have a timeframe for when construction might start, but said the next few months would be "key" as the union worked through the consenting process.

"We're excited about the new facility and what it will provide for not only high performance [athletes] but the community," he said. "It's going to be a fantastic facility for sporting in the region."

At the meeting yesterday, the committee were told the re-design of the hub - on a greenfields site - would mean a rezone of residential areas on the southeastern boundary to sports park zone through a district plan change.

This would also change much of the sports park zone in the northeast to residential.

The union was one of the sport organisations consulted during a review of the master plan - developed in 2013 to provide a 30-year plan for sport and recreation needs.

During this consultation, the need for greater capacity in sports fields due to growth was identified by most sports organisations - primarily due to demand within winter codes.

Artificial turf pitches could meet some of this demand, however some organisations stated their desire for significant development of facilities, fields and services to meet current demand and anticipated growth.

It was thought any duplication could be avoided, if clubs were to share facilities.

There was no extra funding being sought to implement the master plan at this stage.

The Park Island Expansion has a budget of $4,246,000 in the next two financial years of the Long Term Plan 2015-25, and $7.5 million is earmarked for the financial years from 2022 to 2025.

The total rough order of cost (ROC) of implementing the council-owned facilities in the Park Island Master Plan has been estimated to be $25,650,000 over a 30 year timeframe.