Cultural Precinct to link Taupō town with boat harbour

Option B was selected as the Taupō District Council's preferred option for its proposed cultural precinct project after a workshop on Monday.

Taupō District Council has chosen a preferred option for its proposed cultural precinct project, and it is one designed to create strong links between the central business district and the lake's boat harbour.

Option B will now be developed into a draft master plan for the precinct.
Then early next year the council will weigh up the master plan plus the other two possible sites for a civic administration building (Tuwharetoa St carpark and 72 Lake Tce plus the status quo of five different locations in the town centre) and select one to progress through to an amendment to its Long Term Plan.

Last month the council asked the community for its thoughts on four different layout options for a proposed cultural precinct on the Tongariro Domain. In all, 524 submissions were received.

At a workshop on Monday, the council met to narrow the four options down to one preferred option to become the basis for a master plan for the proposed cultural precinct.
Project leader Shannon Joe of Warren & Mahoney said the team spent two weeks analysing "an assortment of different views" on the options and had consolidated them into a sets of key principles and points raised.

Overall, there were 18 supportive points, with a centralised downtown administration and cultural location seen as an asset to the Taupō community. Respondents also supported a better connection from town to the lake and river, bigger museum, upgrade to the Great Lake Centre and library and a place to tell Taupo's stories. There were 12 points of concern which included not enough car parking, the potential cost and impact on rates, that a civic administration building should not be in that area, and mixing traffic and pedestrians. All the feedback will be made available to the community, with names removed for privacy.

Of the submissions that indicated a preference for one or more particular options, option B was the most favoured, with 92 submissions. That was also the design team's preferred option. The least favoured option was option D, which provided no building shelter to the south of the plaza area and had the council administration area located on top of the library, however Mr Joe said all options were pretty close.

Council chief executive Gareth Green told the workshop that council had discussed whether it should provide parking for its staff and the answer was no.

"The retailers and others don't provide parking for their staff. Why should we?" he said.

Councillors were asked for their preferences. Rosie Harvey was not present but her feedback was that she favoured option D. Cr John Boddy said he did not believe a civic administration building should be on the Tongariro Domain at all because it is recreational reserve. He also felt the council should be looking at a transport strategy and new Waikato River bridge first. Cr Barry Hickling said it was a difficult decision because he always felt the council building should not be on the Domain and he therefore could not accept any of the options. Cr Tangonui Kingi agreed but said if he had to support an option, it was B.

Cr Anna Park said the only option she was really against was option C, saying five new buildings was not a good idea. Cr John Williamson, who was not present, had indicated he favoured options B or D. Maggie Stewart, Christine Rankin, Kirsty Trueman and Mayor David Trewavas all favoured B. Cr Jollands also said she favoured B.

"I think it does challenge us. It delivers on a lot of the things I think I'm hearing back from the community about how they want the space to be used. I think it really resonates."

When she queried why option B seemed to be the most favoured, Mr Joe said it was because it met one of the key aims of engaging with the lake, river and boat harbour and acted as a gateway to the harbour area which not many people knew about and which was not celebrated.

Morné Hugo of landscape architects Boffa Miskell said in option B the plaza area became the hub of the area and was a strong cross-connection between the Domain and Story Pl culminating in a landmark (boat harbour). It also had the atrium acting as a connecting space to move through. That option also dealt well with the prevailing westerly and southerly winds.

A draft master plan based on Option B will be presented to the council on December 5 and the final master plan is expected to be delivered before Christmas. In parallel, the council is also about to begin getting options developed for a possible civic administration building on the Tuwharetoa St carpark site. It has already done some concept design work on its former site at 72 Lake Tce.

All three options (the master plan, Tuwharetoa St carpark and 72 Lake Tce sites) plus a business case will be presented to the council before Christmas. Councillors will then have time to consider them before selecting a preferred option to go into the Long Term Plan amendment process in February 2019.