Now for the future Long-term Plan 2021-31 Consultation Document Kia ora Every three years we create a plan for investing in our city over the coming decade. This document describes the challenges we face as we look to build the great city you’ve told us you want to live in and invites your feedback on our plans for Tauranga. We want you to tell us what you think of our proposals and how you think we should pay for them. Our commissioners will use your feedback to make decisions about the Long-term Plan, which runs from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2031. This plan is about now and the future. More information is available at www.nowforthefuture.co.nz 2 Key dates Consultation 7 May - 7 June This is when we want your feedback - Hearings we must hear from you by 4pm on Monday, 7 June 14 - 18 June Deliberations This is your chance to speak with our commissioners in week starting 21 June person about your feedback, if you wish to do so The commissioners will consider all the feedback Adopt Long-term Plan from our community week starting 26 July The commissioners will confirm the Long-term Plan 2021-31 Adopting the Long-term Plan after 30 June 2021 means we are behind the statutory timeframe. We acknowledge this and intend to adopt on 26 July 2021. At this stage this is unlikely to have any impact on invoicing for water and rates. 3 We are listening • Complete the online submission form Come and chat with us at one of our events. available at www.nowforthefuture.co.nz These are meetings where your views can be shared directly with commissioners and/or • Scan your completed submission form staff. and email it to [email protected] Come and chat with us at one of our events. You can also use our online rating calculator Matua Hall 15 May, 9am-midday to find an estimate of your proposed rates. Mount Sports Club 20 May, 4pm-7pm Greerton Library 31 May, 4pm-7pm Papamoa Surf Club 1 June, 4pm-7pm. • Drop your submission form into our For a full list of activities and events, and all Customer Service Centre, 91 Willow the ways you can tell us what you think, go Street, Tauranga or at your local library. to www.nowforthefuture.co.nz • Place your completed form in an envelope and send it to this address (no stamp required): Freepost authority number 370 Long-term Plan 2021-31 Tauranga City Council Private Bag 12022 Tauranga 3143 For more information on giving us your feedback, see pages 132-133 4 From 7 May to 7 June, we are also keen to hear your feedback on the following topics: Revenue and Financing Policy This outlines our proposals for sourcing funds (money), as well as our capital and operating expenditure. Development Contributions Policy This describes how we propose to charge developers about the ways they contribute to roads, pipes, parks and other infrastructure serving their properties. User Fees and Charges These documents are available at www.nowforthefuture.co.nz 5 Contents Whanake te tai 8 Messages from the commissioners 9 Your community outcomes 14 The big challenges facing Tauranga 15 When our spaces and places were built 16 Community spaces and places 17 More people coming to live, work, play and learn 19 Congestion and getting around the city 21 The city centre 23 Resilience - climate change and coping with natural disasters 25 Our ability to get the job done 27 The biggest challenge: funding 29 How we fund what we do 31 Development Contributions 33 Sources of income for the big-ticket items 35 More on funding 36 6 Building a great city now, for the future 38 Capital expenditure priorities 40 Fixing and updating what we already have 53 Funding our capital investment programme 54 Funding the six investment priority areas 69 Other consultation topics 78 Sale of Pitau Road village and Hinau Street village 79 Supporting community-led initiatives 84 Our civic administration building 89 Infrastructure strategy 97 Our finances 99 Policies for consideration 115 For your reference 117 Tauranga city rating comparisons 118 Our assumptions 121 Auditors Report 128 Having your say 131 Submission form 134 7 Whanake te tai Forever flow of the tide As Tauranga Tangata we have an affinity with the ocean. Whanake te tai speaks to that, drawing upon our natural environment. In this case the ‘forever flow of the tide’, incrementally increasing, but progressively developing and rising. This acknowledges that we need to be as the tide, inch by inch doing more, doing better each day, implying continuous improvement. Tauranga now and for the future He kupu nā ngā kōmihana Messages from the commissioners Welcome – haere mai Not so long ago, Tauranga was a sleepy coastal town with a ferry Now is the right time to take a good look at ourselves and decide chugging to and from the Mount. what kind of city we want to live in. We have a real opportunity to be ambitious for this city – to not settle for second rate How things have changed. infrastructure and crumbling leisure and sporting facilities. The Now a multi-lane bridge spans the harbour, carrying tens of commissioners have been getting feedback that people want a thousands of vehicles across the city every day – and to and past city they can be proud of: a thriving community with pools, parks, New Zealand’s busiest port. libraries and theatres; a place where we can move around easily; a city that has affordable homes for ourselves and for our children. Many hundreds of new businesses have moved here, attracting skilled workers from all over the country and around the world. If we seriously want these things, we have to answer the question: New suburbs have been created to house these people and their how are we going to pay for them? families, pushing the city’s boundaries towards Te Puke and the That question, and many more, are at the heart of this Long-term Kaimai Range. Plan. And yet, during this time, we’ve failed to invest in community This is the time for everyone in our community to get involved, so facilities and the key infrastructure our city needs. please read this document and give us your thoughts. Help us We see the evidence of this every day. Anyone who drives along make the right decisions for you, your family, and your city – now one of our key arterial routes at ‘rush hour’ will know that we’ve and for the future. under-invested in our transport networks. And it’s hard to get around by other means, because we haven’t adequately provided for cyclists, pedestrians and public transport users. Most summers, we’re asked not to use our sprinklers, to help Anne Tolley manage water shortages. Commission Chair Many of our key community facilities are aging and no longer meet our modern expectations, and in newer parts of the city, they don’t exist at all. In the past two decades we’ve only built five new big public amenities. This despite our population growing by 50%. We all pay one way or another… Commissioner Stephen Selwood For decades now, Tauranga has suffered from under-investment in All Long-term Plans are important, but this one is critical. It will set community facilities and key infrastructure like roads and pipes. our strategic direction while underlining our commitment to the future of our city. This has been driven by a desire to keep rates as low as possible. There’s no question that we need to make hard decisions, and And that’s understandable, because nobody wants to pay more that we need to make them now. And we need your views on our rates on their properties or higher prices for services. investment options. But the downside is that is that we are paying in other ways. Tell us what your priorities are for Tauranga, now and for the future. By not investing in the city, we have come to a situation where our roads are congested, house prices are beyond the reach of many people, water supplies are running low during summer, and we’re not managing our environment as well as we should. We can either let this situation get worse, or we can invest now for the future and ensure Tauranga is a great place for us, and our children, to live. We’ve certainly reached a crunch point. What we need now and for the future… Commissioner Bill Wasley One of the common things we’ve been hearing from the community is that they don’t want to be subsidising the cost of growth. Or in other words, paying for infrastructure for new residents who are yet Strategies and plans – now and for the future to move here. • SmartGrowth We understand this and we also understand how confronting it is • the Urban Form and Transport Initiative when you see dramatic changes in the city you love and call home. However, what we think hasn’t been made sufficiently clear is that • the Western Bay of Plenty Transport System Plan Tauranga desperately needs upgraded infrastructure to cater for the • Community Facilities Investment Plan people who live here already – for the people who live here now. Therefore, this Long-term Plan takes care to focus as much on the now as it does on the future Long-term Plan. Yes, it’s true that Tauranga is the fastest growing city in New We cannot turn off growth but Zealand but even if there were no new residents moving to what we can do is properly Tauranga, we would still need to substantially invest in our current plan for it, so that we all infrastructure and facilities.