Questions are being asked about the use of public land in the proposed Merivale Community Centre rebuild.

Tauranga City Councillor Murray Guy is questioning how the community centre can propose using public land to expand the centre when nothing has been discussed by the community or the council.

Doug Owens is chairing the fundraising committee for the proposed Merivale Community Centre rebuild.

A year ago the Merivale community voted solidly against supporting the community centre through a targeted rate, says Murray.

'The majority of the community didn't want to be target rated because they didn't see the value, not personally derive any benefit from it.

'But what's happened since then is the community centre has worked with unidentified councillors and staff to undertake a process that's neither open, or transparent.

'There hasn't been an Annual Plan or Ten Year Plan process, and they have secured the land next door at a cost of $330,000 plus the costs associated with cleaning up asbestos, that was ratepayer funded.”

In addition to the former church site on the corner of Fraser Street, the council also owns the neighbouring land at No.10 Kesteven Avenue where the community centre is located.

The two sections are separated by a public right of way, a continuation of the access behind the Merivale shops.

It is public land that is overlooked in any of the press releases from the community centre about its future plans, says Murray.

And as a public vehicle access, it literally stands in the way of amalgamating the titles.

'They would have to buy that right of way, they couldn't develop both,” says Murray. 'There isn't a single aspect of their proposal that doesn't require council and community buy in.

'They couldn't rebuild over both lots as inferred by the press release unless it incorporates both lots.

'The Merivale Community Centre did say they would like the council at some point in time to consider selling the existing house and applying that to the front block and they would undertake a purpose built community centre. That was one of the submissions, they've never gone out to the community with it but that was just one of the ideas.

'That idea has some merit of course but as with most ideas they incrementally and by stealth increase and expand beyond that originally mooted.”

Now the community centre is talking about being gifted the existing lot worth $350,000 or so but also the recently purchased lot fronting Fraser Street, costing ratepayers $330,000 plus as yet unknown additional costs of filling in the hole and disposing of the asbestos.

The community centre has now announced the intention to immediately begin fundraising, when it should first be seeking agreement in principle with the council and the community, says Murray.

Merivale Community Inc chairman Michael Thomson says the centre's aspirations have been clear since the development of the neighbourhood plan in the early 2000s.

That plan went through a long community consultation process and was later adopted by the council, says Michael. While the particular piece of land wasn't signalled, the community centre had been saying for well over 10 years that it needs to be replaced.

That came out again in 2007, and again following public consultation in 2011.

'From our perspective we have been clear for well over 10 years that the community centre needed to be replaced or expanded to provide the opportunity for better services to the community,” says Michael.

'We made submissions along those lines to the council saying if they bought that land we would be looking to build a new community centre when we could raise the money.

'So that's that background. Now we acknowledge and agree that in the process of raising funds we are going to have to go through a negotiation with council over the use of the land.

'We've set up the building committee to start the process.”

The process includes the negotiation process with the council, possible designs, and raising the money.

'If we can raise the money we can get it built.”

A suggestion a new community centre will be funded in part from an associated commercial development is a possibility at this stage, says Michael.

The community centre needs to have some space for commercial activities to generate income to support the costs of the building.

'Funders of social services aren't particularly keen on meeting the full overhead costs of an organisation.” says Michael.

'So having a commercial capacity within it might at one level help to meet some of the costs of the infrastructure so the services can be provided.

'Apart from funding from contracts for social services that are getting thinner and harder to obtain, how does a community continue to support the presence and availability of that sort of facility in their community?

'There's a number of ideas, but I don't think there is a clear and distinctive silver bullet.”

Doug Owens became involved as chairman of the building committee after recent meetings and discussions about the centre's long term aspirations.

'Like many community groups we live on the margins financially and the Owens family were very gracious in supporting us recently,” says Michael.

'They saw that as an opportunity to help a community they have an affinity and history with,” says Michael.

'The main thing is we continue to talk about it because there can be misapprehensions, but we are really trying to provide the services for the community that's one of the lowest decile communities in Tauranga.”

When approached about his role Doug Owens says he's not involved with the politics.

'I'm just the chairman of the building committee. I'm just there to raise money. I'm not getting into the day to day politics of what's going on,” says Doug.

Doug was born in Merivale. He's a Bay of Plenty Regional Councillor and has agreed to steer the fundraising, design and the building of the complex designed to serve the needs of the youth and the communities of Merivale, Gate Pa and Greerton.