Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Hopefully you'll hear a lot about Tauranga City Council's civic heart project during the next month or so. It's really important you share your feedback with us – check out council's website for more information.

The project can be as simple or as ambitious as the community wants. It's likely to have a lasting impact for future generations either way.

It started after we discovered toxic mould in council's buildings on Willow St. We got experts in to see if we could repair the existing buildings, including making them earthquake-safe. The experts recommend we don't bother fixing the buildings as council would spend more money repairing them than what they would be worth afterwards.

All of the expert's reports are publicly available on council's website.

Our council needs to house its staff somewhere. Our staff are temporarily spread across multiple, leased offices in the city centre. It's an expensive and unproductive way to run any organisation. We need a solution.

We've looked at the future way of working, including how technology may impact on us. We've also looked different locations across the city.

I think it's important to have the council in the city centre, alongside other government agencies, in the region's commercial heart.

The project – being the new office building, the surrounding open space and a much-needed big new public ​carpark building – is proposed to cost $90 million.

We haven't decided on whether we'd own or lease anything yet. Building an office ourselves would mean a one per cent rates increase and put pressure on our balance sheet.

Leasing a building would mean a two per cent rates increase but put less pressure on our balance sheet. The next council will make the decision when further work is done during the next 12 months.

We're also asking you whether we should look at how a museum or a performance-conference centre might fit on the site. Also, what should we do with the city library? Should we fix the current one or should we build a fit-for-purpose modern library?

Future councils will decide whether these projects will go ahead or not, subject to further public consultation.

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

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