Tauranga councillors will reconsider a controversial cul-de-sac in central Tauranga a landlord says has taken thousands of dollars off her property’s value.
The Cameron Rd end of 7th Ave west was turned into a cul-de-sac as part of the $110 million first stage of Tauranga City Council’s Cameron Rd project.
The project made safety improvements, added separated cycleways and bus lanes to the arterial route.
Century-old water infrastructure was also upgraded to allow for denser housing in the future.
In May 2023, 7th Ave was permanently closed during construction and stage one of the Cameron Rd project was completed in February.
At a Project Planning and Monitoring Committee meeting on Monday, the council decided to re-engage with affected businesses and residents on 7th Ave, as well as the wider community.
Christine Currie owns 405 Cameron Rd on the corner of 7th Ave – where Bay of Plenty Times and SunLive publisher NZME is based, along with another businesses.
She told those at the meeting her property value had decreased and she lost rent since the closure. This was because of the extra distance tenants had to travel to reach Cameron Rd, she said. Currie previously told the Bay of Plenty Times a valuer estimated the closure at 7th Ave would take up to $800,000 off her building’s value.
“When I paid for the building, I paid for it on a corner and I just feel the whole building has been short-changed,” she said at Monday’s meeting.
The rating valuation of the building was $5.86m in May 2023, according to the council’s website.
The closure also affected several businesses on and near 7th Ave, she said.
The cafe next to her building had lost parking directly outside because of the new bus stop, and customers no longer had easy access to the parking bays on 7th Ave, said Currie.
“The closure has removed a large number of parks in 7th Ave that were valuable for businesses and customers.”
Currie suggested cutting into the grass berms on the street to add more.
The building owner said she did not receive any notice about the planned closure and came across the plans for the street on the council’s website.
“We had to inspect 18 pages of plans to discover this – by this time objections had closed.
“As the building owner, I should have been the first to be notified.
“I will not be satisfied until 7th Ave is re-opened to Cameron Rd.”
Mayor Mahé Drysdale asked if a one-way slip lane from Cameron Rd to 7th Ave would solve the issue.
Currie said her tenants needed quick access to Cameron Rd and the cafe customers needed to get into 7th Ave.
Councillor Rick Curach asked if opening the road with a left turn only on to Cameron Rd would be a satisfactory compromise.
Currie said it wasn’t satisfactory, but she was willing to talk about it as an option.
Council head of transport Mike Seaborne said the Cameron Rd changes aimed to create a multi-modal corridor that would cope with future traffic, pedestrian and cycling growth.
When designing transport projects, there can be awkward trade-offs, he said.
“They’re not always best for everyone around them, but they are best for a whole.”
It was normal practice to close some roads because the more intersections there were on a road, the less efficient it was, said Seabourne.
He said the council consulted with business and property owners and the wider community.
Consultation began in December 2018, with staff visiting businesses face-to-face. In December 2019, businesses were invited to join a community liaison group.
The public were consulted between March 10 and April 10, 2021.
Councillor Steve Morris asked what the council could learn from other councils that were doing consultation well.
City centre infrastructure lead Shawn Geard said every council had issues with consultation and there were some who did it better than others.
He said council needed to acknowledge consultation could have been done better on the Cameron Rd project.
The council asked staff to engage with people affected by the 7th Ave closure and come up with options for the street.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
Editor’s Note: Alisha Evans is a reporter for Local Democracy Reporting based in the SunLive newsroom. She has done a series of stories on the Cameron Rd project, including Christine Currie’s concerns about the 7th Ave closure. Previous stories were published prior to NZME buying SunLive in early 2024. This story continues that reporting. NZME’s discussions with its landlord and the council about 7th Ave had no influence on this reporting.
