Mauao's co-management status will become official on Sunday with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Tauranga City Council and Mauao Trust.

The mountain will now be jointly-governed by Maori and the council through a Joint Administering Body, which will take over running the cultural and iconic landscape from the Mauao Steering Committee.

A memorandum of understanding will be signed on Sunday over Mauao.

Running the mountain will still cost ratepayers about $600,000 each year, plus any unforeseen costs like fires, floods and slips. And the new board will also have access to community funding to add to ratepayers' contributions.

Mauao is owned by Maori and with continued Crown involvement it will be administered by the JAB but day-to-day management will be delivered through city council staff for the next few years.

The new agreement does not affect public access to Mauao, which is protected and will continue. More than one million people walk Mauao each year.

The MOU was approved by the Mauao Trust in May this year and received a similar endorsement by TCC at a council meeting in June.

The special signing of the MOU between the Mauao Trust and the council will take place on the Mauao Historic Reserve, oceanside, above the rocky steps, this Sunday (September 15) at 10am. If bad weather prevails, the signing will take place at the Mount Surf Club.

Four representatives from TCC and the Mauao Trust will form the joint board and will meet once legislation is put in place and representatives have been appointed, near November.

One of the new board's first tasks is to review the reserve management plan currently in place for Mauao.

The MOU has been more than a year in the making after council supported the establishment of a joint administering body in March 2012.

This followed a hui at Hairini Marae where the Mauao Trust, supported by the Tauranga Moana Iwi Collective, presented their aspirations for Mauao to elected members.

The primary objective was to initiate the proposal for entering into a joint administering body relationship between the Mauao Trust and Tauranga City Council.

Ownership of Mauao was returned from the Crown to local Iwi in 2007 – and ownership was vested with Tauranga Moana Iwi through the establishment of the Mauao Trust.

While the ownership of Mauao was transferred to Tangata Whenua, responsibility for decisions on the control and management of the mountain stayed with the council through the administering body status in the Reserves Act 1977. Signing the MOU transfers that responsibility from the council to the joint board.

Mauao Trust member Awanui Black is elated with the signing of the MOU and says a lot of time and work has been put into securing a joint management.