New destination spa on the cards in Te Aroha
A new destination spa could sit within the Te Aroha Domain, after a council decision to develop the $18.9m complex as part of its long-term plan.
After two days of public submissions and passionate deliberations, MatamataPiako District councillors agreed with the 34 per cent of submitters who wanted to move ahead with the biggest proposal in its 2021-31 long-term plan.
While the majority of submitters (41 per cent) preferred to only spend $5.3m on the complex, and 25 per cent didn’t want it to go ahead at all, councillors agreed that if it was to be done, it needed to be done properly.
However, the $18.9m option will only go ahead if the ‘‘business case stacks up and investigations into potential risks are favourable.’’
Council is also looking into other funding options and wants to undergo further consultation with the community.
District Mayor Ash Tanner said if it doesn’t stack up, council will pull the plug.
Te Aroha Councillor Teena Cornes said people were telling council they are on a fixed income and farmers are hurting. ‘‘I would like to understand how this affects the ratepayer.
‘‘I truly believe we are at the very early stages of how Covid-19 is affecting our people. If we are going to do it, we need to do it properly, but our due diligence needs to be very clear.’’
Matamata Cr James Sainsbury said councillors shouldn’t be making decisions that have an $18.9m risk. ‘‘It’s not our place to be making decisions with this capacity.’’
On Wednesday, elected members received a packed day of praise and backlash as public submissions were presented in full.
The 58 oral presentations, from a total of 500 submissions, came from farmers, climate change activists, biodiversity leaders, the district’s youth and more. The common themes were around improving walking and cycling, roading, infrastructure and the lack of playgrounds.
Nacre Maiden told councillors she needed her dollar to go further.
‘‘For every dollar, I give to you, I need to see that re-invested because that’s $1 I’m not spending.’’
Most were supportive of the council’s vision while others didn’t believe money was being spent in the appropriate places and would be costly to ratepayers.
Te Aroha resident of 40 years, Ron Tuck, said it’s great to have plans for the district, but someone has to pay for it and that’s usually the ratepayers. The spa project will start impacting rates from 2022 when construction would begin. It’s expected the complex will be self-funding by 2028 and create up to 65 jobs.
Council has budgeted $5.3m between 2022-24 to get work started and as demand increases more spa and treatment rooms could be developed, alongside the domain. From 2021 to 2026, an estimated $750,000 will be spent to improve the Te Aroha Domain.
Rien van de Wetering from Keep Te Aroha Beautiful walks Mt Te Aroha every week and wanted to see more attention on eradicating weeds.
‘‘The spa, and the domain, are major assets of the town, by both international and domestic visitors,’’ he said.
From December 2019 to December 2020 the visitor economy injected $67m into district’s economy, with $60m generated by domestic visitors and $7m from international travellers.
The consultation ran from March 16 until April 19, 2021. Council will adopt the LTP on June 30 and on July 1 all plans and policies come into effect.