SmartGrowth leaders including mayors, regional chair, senior councillors and tangata whenua representatives are being urged to be bold in their leadership on future development for the Western Bay of Plenty.

The key themes to emerge from consultation undertaken in October on the Future Development Strategy and Tauranga Urban Strategy were discussed at last week's SmartGrowth Leadership Group meeting.

Independent chair Bill Wasley says the messages coming from communities have been consistent and clear.

'People want to see aspirational visions and ambitious, aggressive targets set in support of greater levels of infill and intensification.

'We heard overwhelming support for moving towards a more compact city with higher density housing focused around centres and public transport hubs, as well as areas of high amenity.”

He says there is also strong support for further investigation for fast-tracking development in eastern areas like Paengaroa, Pukehina, Pongakawa and Rangiuru.

'Enabling the development of Māori-owned land and addressing Māori housing needs featured strongly too. People also called for a larger range of housing types, price points and locations which includes the need for more affordable homes and diverse mixed communities,” says Bill.

'Transport was a key issue for people who responded with support for a comprehensive and ambitious, multi-modal, integrated transport plan with a 30 to 50-year horizon. Submitters told us that they want to see better public transport and many were in favour of including rail as part of the mix with a network of park and rides.”

Partner council staff will continue to analyse the submissions and report back to the Leadership Group in early 2019 before final decisions are made on the Future Development Strategy and Tauranga Urban Strategy.

The Leadership Group members have called for an integrated response across several workstreams.

During the consultation period, 101 people attended one of the five Community Conversations, 45 forum members attended the briefing session, seven people attended the stakeholder briefing, 186 people completed the online survey, 233 total submissions were received including survey responses, 1100 visits to the SmartGrowth website were made during October and 1300 to 1700 people were reached for each Community Conversation event boosted on Facebook.