Working together to make Mount streets more people-friendly.
Together with the community we developed a plan to potentially trial some temporary changes to streets in the north Mount Maunganui area to make it safer and more enjoyable. We also listened to hear if there were any other ideas from the community to consider.
The Commissioners’ decision on the project
Mount trial not going ahead, feasibility study for boardwalk extension proposed
At a Council meeting on 15 March 2021, the Commissioners have decided:
- not to undertake a trial involving a temporary shared path and altered traffic arrangements for the section of Marine Parade between Pacific Avenue and the Tay Street intersection
- to approve the additional recommendation (see recommendations below) to include a cost and feasibility study for the extension of the Marine Parade boardwalk in the draft Long-term Plan 2021-2031.
The Commissioners said the ‘Innovating Streets at The Mount’ project did not have sufficient community support to proceed. However, during the community consultation and co-design for the project, strong community support was received for extending the boardwalk on the coast side of Marine Parade from the Cenotaph (opposite the Pacific Avenue intersection) to the Oceanbeach Road roundabout.
The boardwalk was not part of the initial plans the Council was seeking feedback on and it would be out of scope for the Innovating Streets project itself, which is limited to temporary works within the road reserve, in line with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s funding requirements.
Commission Chair Anne Tolley said the idea of extending the boardwalk had been around for some time and it would address many of the opportunities identified through the Innovating Streets project. “Although the trial’s community co-design approach received good support, we felt opinion was too divided to make a convincing case. Under the circumstances, we felt it would be better to prioritise the potential extension of the existing Marine Parade boardwalk.”
What happens now?
Planning for the Long-term Plan (LTP) 2021-2031 is currently underway with community consultation as a next step between 7 May and 7 June before the plan would be adopted by 30 July 2021. You can stay up-to-date on this plan by visiting our LTP web page.
Also, we are aware of some current safety concerns about the Tay Street intersection, that won't be addressed by the Innovating Streets project now. Council's Transportation team will further investigate how we can address and fund these outside of the Innovating Streets project.
Even though the project isn't going ahead there are key learnings for us at Tauranga City Council, as well as for Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (our main funding partner) and other councils. We have learnt a lot about community sentiment and a truly collaborative design process, and we are keen to continue working with the community in a similar way.
Thanks
As co-design was key in this project, we want to extend a huge thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts and input with us during the project’s lifespan.
After talking to the community about what they wanted and any issues they foresaw, we looked into what was actually feasible and how a plan would match with our objectives. This resulted in recommendations for how to create safer and more enjoyable streets in Mount Maunganui. These recommendations were presented to the Commissioners on Monday 15 March.
In short, we recommended the trial of a temporary shared path and altered traffic arrangements for the section of Marine Parade from Pacific Avenue through to Tay Street intersection. We are also recommended to undertake work to estimate costs and feasibility for an extension to the boardwalk for potential inclusion in the 2021-2031 Long Term Plan, as this was a recurring theme during public consultation.
Detailed information about our recommendations can be found in the Council report.
The project 'Innovating Streets at The Mount' was centred around co-design with the community. Throughout the project's life span engagement, feedback and collaboration were key.
The first round of community feedback, held from the end of August to mid-September 2020, focused on understanding which routes people thought we should include in the trial and what the perception of safety was for people using different ways of getting around.
Key points from the feedback were:
- The majority of the submitters wants council to trial changes on all four identified routes; with support varying between 58 and 70%, depending on the route.
- Respondents think all the proposed routes are safer for pedestrians, than for people on bikes, scooters, skateboards or other mobility-aid devices.
- Between 46% and 66% of respondents think that the routes are not safe for children on bikes, scooters, skateboards or other mobility-aid devices. The statistics for adults are similar (within 5%).
- Feedback statistics for respondents who identified themselves as ‘Mount residents’ were similar to those for all respondents (typically within 5%).
Report on public feedback - round one (965kb pdf)
We also set up a Community Design Group, consisting of 28 representatives from all corners of the community. Between the end of September and the end of October, this group worked with us on developing ideas for trials. The feedback collected through the first round of public engagement was essential in guiding this work. This group also helped us to finetune the recommendations taken to the Commission in March 2021.
In a second round of community feedback, held from mid-to-end-November 2020, we asked the members of the public which changes they thought we should trial. You can view the design options that were open for feedback in this document. The full feedback report is available below.
Report on public feedback - round two (2.4mb pdf)
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