Community and District Development Committee preview
The Community and District Development Committee will next week consider supporting the strategic retention of council-owned land at Titoki Place for potential conversion to sportfields.
A 2019 decision to sell the land at 8 Titoki Place to Kāinga Ora for housing was conditional on compliance with the Council’s Land Disposals Policy and the conditions of sale cannot be met due to high development costs, risk and consequential land valuation implications, a report to the Committee notes.
The Committee is being asked to support the strategic retention of the land and to direct staff to undertake work to understand the full cost of its development for sportsfields, for consideration as part of the 2024-34 Long-term Plan.
Council purchased the 3.89 hectare site, which adjoins Ray Boord Park, from the Crown in January 2000 for the purpose of providing additional sporting facilities. The land has been used to stockpile removed fill from sports facility developments and in 2019 the then Council approved its disposal to Kāinga Ora, by Private Treaty, for the strategic objective of providing land for social housing.
A 2023 assessment of council sports facilities identified a capacity shortfall of at least 29 hours per week, which is expected to increase.
Based on the identified high cost and risk in developing the land for residential housing, the consequential impact on the value of the land, and the need to increase the capacity of Council’s existing sportfields network, it is recommended that the land at 8 Titoki Place be retained for the future development of sportsfields.
Go to p23 of the meeting agendato read the full report on this matter: public-agenda-community-and-district-development-committee-meeting-9-august-2023.pdf (rotorualakescouncil.nz)
Recommendation to close library on Sundays
The Committee is being asked to review and amend a previous decision and consider fully closing Rotorua’s library on Sundays.
Sunday closure, saving approximately $104,000 per year, was among proposals for consideration as part of the 2023/24 Annual Plan. Elected members decided instead on a partial closure, to open for three hours each Sunday.
Work since then to evaluate how a full Sunday closure compares to opening for three hours has taken into consideration actual costs, opportunity costs and potential impact on customers and staff.
Opening for three hours, rather than a full closure on Sundays, reduces the anticipated $104,000 savings to just over $40,000 due to increased costs associated with opening, even for reduced hours, on Sundays.
Current Sunday users have indicated they can reschedule their activities to other days and staff who have been working Sundays can have their hours reallocated to fill an existing vacancy during the week.
Overall, a report to the Committee notes, the cost to open for three hours on a Sunday for a small proportion of users outweighs service level and opportunity benefits.
Go to p31 of the meeting agenda to read the full report on this matter: public-agenda-community-and-district-development-committee-meeting-9-august-2023.pdf (rotorualakescouncil.nz)
Also on the agenda
Hearing of submissions on proposed change of purpose for Sala Street cemetery site: The committee will hear from submitters who wished to speak to their submission on this matter following consultation. Deliberations and decision-making will be undertaken on a future date.
Go to p11 of the meeting agenda to read the full report on this matter: public-agenda-community-and-district-development-committee-meeting-9-august-2023.pdf (rotorualakescouncil.nz)
Updates from Council-controlled Organisations: Council CCOs Rotorua Airport Ltd and RotoruaNZ will present updates to the committee, including financials.
Go to p14 of the meeting agenda toread the report from Rotorua Airport and p17 for the report from RotoruaNZ: Go to p23 of the meeting agenda to read the full report on this matter: public-agenda-community-and-district-development-committee-meeting-9-august-2023.pdf (rotorualakescouncil.nz)
Operational reports: Operational updates from the Community Wellbeing and District Development groups will be presented to the Committee.
Go to p36 of the meeting agenda to read the Community Wellbeing report and p45 for the report from District Development: Go to p23 of the meeting agenda to read the full report on this matter: public-agenda-community-and-district-development-committee-meeting-9-august-2023.pdf (rotorualakescouncil.nz)
Confidential matters: Two matters will be dealt with in confidential, an item on CCO board appointments and an update on transformational projects.
Go to p51 of the meeting agenda to view the reasons for these items being dealt with in confidential.