Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Tauranga City Council is the biggest landowner in Tauranga, and we buy and sell land all the time. Regular property reviews should happen frequently to ensure the community is getting the best use for its land.

This council is carrying on successive council decisions to look at all of our surplus land. Surplus land means properties the council owns, which is not a reserve or needed for strategic reasons.

This week we made a decision to sell land to Zespri. We received a great response from the market, while ensuring the community maintained access to a similar sized park that now adjoins the library.

We kept all options about the property on the table as we consulted the community. The biggest issue submitters raised was keeping the green space and the library. We looked at all the nearby green spaces and we agreed it was important to keep the park and library.

In another example, we stopped the review of council-owned residential land in the avenues. Historic legislative processes contributed to the properties being financially unviable to proceed.

There will always be properties that council needs to consider selling. We have learnt a lot from the examples we have gone through recently. This should help make it easier for those wanting to have their say on potential future land sales, as well as those looking to buy the land.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 0276989548, and follow me atwww.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.