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Greerton Maarawaewae phases

Projects/The Greerton Maarawaewae study/The Greerton Maarawaewae study engagement phases

Terenga tono rangahau ō Mārawaewae

The Greerton Maarawaewae study engagement phases

The various phases of The Greerton Maarawaewae study

Phase 1 engagement: your ideas

The meaning of Maarawaewae

Tauranga Moana hapū established vegetable gardens in Greerton that contributed to feeding their tupuna/ancestors during the Battles of Pukehinahina/Gate Pā and Te Ranga. They were also used to provide kai/food for the koroneihana - the annual celebration commemorating the Māori King - in Ngāruawāhia. ‘Maara’ relates to the gardens that were established in and around Poike, Waimapu and Maungatapu and ‘waewae’ relates to the picking and digging of the food that grew here.

Source: Bonnie Whaeanui Pearson referencing her great-grandfather’s manuscript (Te Haari Piahana).

Your ideas please...

What we want are your thoughts and ideas about what you think would be the best use of this land for 10, 20, 30 or 50 years into the future – and help us come up with some options that we can then get your feedback on.

Some things to consider before responding to the questions:

Nothing needs to happen straight away – try to think into the future when there are 15,000 more people living on the Te Papa peninsula
This reserve land is big enough for a wide range of uses – not just one or two
Have a think about how else the site might be made more available for the wider community.

Here’s some ideas to get you started…

Sports fields and club rooms

Golf course

Play and recreation spaces like playgrounds, parkour, fitness trails, frisbee golf

Housing (different types on some of the land)

Walking and cycleways (connecting to and from other parts of the city)

Aquatic centre

Community facilities like meeting rooms, functions centre, outdoor events space etc

Transport hub - park and ride, express bus station, etc

Racecourse

Purpose-built equestrian facility

A parkland and gardens, accessible to everyone to use and enjoy, e.g. botanic, community, historic gardens

or – you may just want the reserve land to stay as it is – please let us know.

Once we have received your ideas, the team will put these together to develop options for your consideration.

What sort of options are on the table?

Here are some examples of options that might emerge.

In your feedback, you can tell us options that you might like to see the team develop….

Leaving the golf course as it is, improving the racecourse facilities and adding some housing (different types on some of the land)
Leaving the racecourse as it is but move the golf course to free up some more open spaces
Leaving the reserve land for golfing, horse racing and equestrian uses (status quo)
Creating a large destination park or community gardens and include a new facility for events and community activities
Using some of the reserve for a transport hub alongside new housing and community facilities
Relocating the racecourse and the golf course and using the land for a mix of different types of homes surrounded by parklands
Reducing the size of the golf course and building homes, community facilities and new green spaces on the land that is freed up
Having a mix of gardens, different types of housing, function centre and transport hub

These options are just for demonstration purposes – to help you provide us with your own thoughts about what might work best.

Phase 2 engagement: the seven options

Seven options for your consideration

The Greerton Maarawaewae Study is asking you to look ahead and imagine what this 85ha of reserve land could best be used for in 10, 20, 30 or 50 years.

During the conversations we have had with you since October, you provided some great ideas.

We received 650 pieces of input to the Study ranging from email, the online feedback form, Facebook comments, letters and face to face meetings. This input, along with technical advice, has been used to develop the seven options.

We are now seeking your feedback on the options – let us know what you think of them and which one will deliver the best outcome for Tauranga and the Western Bay.

All feedback will be considered by the Tauranga City Council Commissioners.

Raw data online feedback – Phase 1 engagement (1.2mb pdf)
Summary of in-person feedback Phase 1 engagement (644kb pdf)
Some drawings from last year's focus groups (3.11mb pdf)

There are seven draft options available for you to have a look at. They are the result of the conversations and input we have had so far.

Frequently asked questions on the options (821kb pdf)

Why is there an option about a site for potential health services?

As part of the community conversation, Council and Kāinga Ora were advised that the Bay of Plenty District Health Board (DHB) was interested in using the reserve land as a site for potential health services.

The DHB feels that the community conversation is a great opportunity to see if potential health services could be situated here and that the DHB would like to know the community’s thoughts on this.

Here are the options

Greerton Maarawaewae Study options - Introduction (4mb pdf)
Greerton Maarawaewae Study - options 1-4 (15mb pdf)
Greerton Maarawaewae Study - options 5-7 (13mb pdf)

Option 1: Stay the way it is now (status quo)

Option 4: Community spaces and active recreation destination park combined with equestrian

Option 7: Enhanced community spaces, golf course, active recreation and potential health services

Option 2: Enhanced community activity combined with racecourse, golf course and equestrian use

Option 5: Golf course, new homes and potentially a new school

Option 3: Community spaces and active recreation combined with golf and equestrian

Option 6: Destination park, new homes and potentially a new school

Phase 3 consultation: three options

The Greerton Maarawaewae Study was launched in October 2021 to identify opportunities to support wellbeing as the city continues to grow. Feedback from the community resulted in seven draft options, two of which included building new homes on the site.

With limited support for housing and a strong message from the community to keep our green spaces green, the Commission voted in June to shortlist three options, none of which include housing. One of the options includes a new public hospital on the site.

The three options

As part of the Greerton Maarawaewae Study, the three options for consultation are:

Option A: Health and Recreation – a mixture of public hospital, parkland, sports fields, golf, and connections to Kopurererua Valley.

Option A includes a fallback provision that says: if the public hospital does not proceed on this site, then Option B: Central Park will proceed.

To support wellbeing and liveability of the community, Option A is Tauranga City Council’s preferred option for the future use of this site.

The golf course stays and the racecourse and equestrian facilities are relocated
This option provides future opportunity to consider the use of the current hospital campus site for housing.