Plan for $1b Pa¯pa¯moa East centre revealed
homes in areas already zoned for housing and a further 7000 to 8000 homes in Te Tumu once it was zoned for housing.
Papamoa Residents and Ratepayers Association chairman Philip Brown said new town centres were always exciting but before any development can take place the interchange must be built.
Both economic development agency Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt and Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley said the interchange was needed.
Tutt said the town centre was an excellent opportunity to unlock “desperately” needed housing quickly and the interchange was key for this and other developments.
“We know this is a priority for TCC and we would also expect the Government to play a strong hand in making this happen sooner rather than later.”
Cowley said Pa¯pa¯moa East had an exciting future but was constrained by its lack of access to the TEL.
“The growing population is currently dependent on just two routes being available.”
Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor Stuart Crosby said “the time was right” for the interchange to be done as quickly as possible.
“We know TCC has been working hard to try and make that work,” he said.
“That interchange is a critical piece of infrastructure that is needed sooner rather than later.”
Crosby, also Local Government New Zealand president and a former Tauranga mayor, said Pa¯pa¯moa had grown to include its own libraries, sports, retail and entertainment facilities.
“This is an extension of that.” Bayleys Commercial Tauranga sales manager Mark Walton said it was fantastic to see masterplanned communities with higherdensity, mixed-use integrated development with “much-needed” community amenities that will provide retail, hospitality, residential and office environments.
Walton said Tauranga and the Western Bay had a “chronic shortage” of the commercial and industrial land the rapidly growing city
"The growing population is currently dependent on just two routes being available." Matt Cowley
needed, with strong demand from businesses wanting to expand.
“We continue to see strong low vacancy rates, particularly in big box retail stores, with most operators in growth mode.
“We have recorded healthy results in the wake of a watershed 2020.”
Subject to the Papamoa East Interchange opening in 2024, The Sands’ first stages were planned to open in late 2023 or early 2024.
The council is planning a $49m redevelopment of the Memorial Pool in the CBD in the draft Longterm Plan and the council said this was its top aquatic priority.
Towards the end of the next decade, it expected to start planning for an aquatic facility in the eastern corridor, but no decision
had been made about how to fund or deliver it.
The council’s Community Investment Plan found a 50-metre pool would not be suitable for Memorial Park, but could be located at Baywave or in the
eastern corridor if it was decided the city needed one.
Evolution Aquatics Tauranga board president Michael Pugh said the Olympic-size pool would make a big difference for elite-level swimmers.
“They have had to travel to Rotorua for training in the 50m pool there.
“When you’re coming down to splits of a second whether you make the Olympics or not being able to train in a full-size swimming pool was important.
“It’s like asking the All Blacks to train on half a field all year and then go and play the World Cup.”