Seaside plans get new lease on life | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

A fundamental rethink of Tauranga downtown's waterfront redevelopment plan could see the area opened up for public events and linked into Dive Crescent.

Details emerged yesterday of the proposed shift in emphasis for the waterfront, away from the purely passive pedestrian-orientated environment approved by council about five years ago.

Re-development of the waterfront was originally meant to be the second stage of Transurban design consortium's plans for the entire Strand area. Stage one, the upgrade of The Strand, won national design honours.

But the decision to review the plan followed the newly-elected council ditching the museum-on-a-pier project.

The $5 million waka-shaped lookout structures, a key feature of Transurban's plan, remains in doubt after being deferred in favour of fast-tracking the replacement for Coronation Pier.

City Centre projects manager Adele Hadfield told the downtown revitalisation steering group yesterday that several urban design companies were shortlisted to carry out the review.

No costings were provided to the meeting.

The long history of waterfront redevelopment plans that never eventuated spurred Mayor Stuart Crosby to insist that the review be simple and painless.

"We must make sure we are moving forward and not backwards, and to give us clarity."

He said the review was a significant opportunity to get people across the railway line by revitalising the waterfront, rather than it being all passive.

Mr Crosby said living in one of Dive Crescent's Sebel Trinity Wharf apartments had given him a whole new appreciation for the waterfront. "I think it is absolutely stunning. Tauranga's history was built over the waterfront - this was the start of Tauranga. I would like to see how we can reflect our past as well as move forward."

Allowing community events to be held on the waterfront would be one of the ways to get people across the railway line, although overall it might be very minor.

Cr Catherine Stewart summed up the mood of the steering group by saying that the waterfront should be uncluttered, but flexible and multi-purpose.

Lawyer and steering group member Alasdair Christie supported the review opening up the opportunity for events.

"We need a clear statement of what that area is for ... we must make sure we are not wasting a whole lot of money."

Chairman Cr Greg Brownless questioned whether the "quite complicated" tasks in the review meant it was realistic. What they wanted was something reasonably simple that would attract people.

City directions manager Christine Jones said the review was about what type of features were needed in the area - it would not be a detailed design. For instance, it would define the functional requirements needed to hold events on the waterfront.

She said it would be about how the waterfront operated and what parts should be used for what.

The review would need to be finished by the end of June so detailed costings could go into the council's 2009-19 community plan deliberations.