Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

Katikati has been slipping south for a number of years.

It was originally Athenree, was set up to be in Waterford and then somehow slipped across the river to its current position.

The last move was not well thought out. The town centre got crammed between the river and the schools' zone. Accommodating growth became a major problem. The ribbon residential zone squeezed out down Park Road and slunk back down Wills to Tetley Road.

One can only feel sympathy for the current council but they met the challenge and embarked on a truly adventurous solution. Katikati had to shift again. Taking heed of the best advice not to put a supermarket outside of town, they did just that. How did they expect to get away with it? They used the old carrot and stick idea. Promise the town a new $12m dollar old town centre upgrade and move the centre to the Talisman Drive, a move that consultants said would kill the town. Tell the people they would have to pay more than $12m dollars with targeted rates for ‘their plan'. Make sure the people understood how silly the plan was by stripping the 111 carparks down to only 70 and put in parking meters. With 170 carparks in the new supermarket on the edge of town, they were under way, the message soon got across. Tricky, dangerous, but the plan is working.

At the moment the supermarket only has 130 parks completed and these are often filled to capacity with people who probably only stay for no more than 20 minutes. One 20 minutes worth of customers would never fit back into town to continue shopping. Local shopkeepers are getting the message. They will have to shift. There is talk now of a mall in behind the supermarket. When that happens, Katikati will go the way of Waterford - south.

Of course the town centre plan will be scrapped. It has done its job. The current town will revert to a few boutique shops and a cultural and tourist centre. A Katikati business district will be able will develop at last. There is still a problem. The bypass, when it comes, will hit the Main Road close to the supermarket, where there is already major congestion. They will probably have to redesign the bypass again. A $2m, four year bypass design programme is already in the Long Term Plan. It is not as if they haven't spent that already.

The Long Term Plan can now be simplified. Forget the extra Katikati targeted rate for the current plan, it won't be needed. Forget the current town centre plan. It will come up again as part of the proposed Katikati Comprehensive Development Plan programmed for 2016. We don't want to start on a $2m bypass consultation process without knowing where the town is that we have to bypass. So far we have saved the district more than $16m and cut our rates bill significantly. The councillors will be pleased.

Where next? It is fairly obvious that the council has to open up its planning over the next two years to include the whole community. If we don't get it right this time, the way we are going we will need a bus service for older residents to get up and down town and Katikati will be allowed to grow and will reach Omokoroa before Tauranga. I hope they will have paid for their sewerage system by then.