Tauranga City councillor Catherine Stewart led the charge against SmartGrowth yesterday, blaming it for policies, she says, have cost Tauranga city ratepayers millions of dollars.

SmartGrowth started in 2001 from an idea of local territorial authorities working collaboratively to prevent ad-hoc growth eroding rural land, says Catherine.

Councillor Catherine Stewart suggests counicl listen alternate suggestions for infrastructrue including solar power.

It immediately cost Tauranga ratepayers with the Tauranga City Plan review being brought forward three years – at considerable expense – so the SmartGrowth planning philosophy could be embedded into the city plan.

SmartGrowth's strategies have also cost ratepayers through the purchase of land at Te Tumu – preventing development in the area, says Catherine. The purchase price was capitalised, and with interest, now has the potential to be a huge burden on ratepayers.

'Much of our planned infrastructure, such as the southern pipeline came about as a result of SmartGrowths' population predictions, which were seriously flawed at the time.

'Since the recession in 2007, growth has slowed dramatically and our population figures have remained fairly static,” says Catherine.

Through SmartGrowth constraining growth and being overly prescriptive, developers are denied the opportunity to deal with market demand and potential opportunities for affordable housing, says Catherine.

'Rather than telling the community how they should live, let them come to council if there is a problem. If intensification is such a great idea, the developers will come and tell the council.”

Catherine also wants SmartGrowth to change its name. SmartGrowth is associated in the US with urban intensification, being promoted in the country as a way to sustainably control future growth.

'New Zealand is a different kettle of fish, and therefore the name SmartGrowth in my opinion does not enhance credibility,” says Catherine. 'The community does not support SmartGrowth's intensification plans for Tauranga because this is New Zealand and kiwis value their backyards to live, work, and play.

'SmartGrowth is driven from the top down, and I believe if you want community buy-in then turn the model around and begin at the ground level up.

'The failure by TCC to intensify housing at Greerton in 2007 and Arataki in 2008 should be a lesson that needs to be taken on board. The people who live in these areas do not want their lifestyles changed.”

The social impacts of people living together in intensified dwellings is a negative – which can have flow-on effects and undesirable consequences on health, crime, and cost to our communities and country, says Catherine.

She questions the reasoning behind SmartGrowth's push towards intensification, saying Tauranga has adequate land. Greenfield sites could be opened to developers if Tauranga City Council approaches things differently.

She suggests the city council show a willingness to listen to suggestions for alternate ways of dealing with infrastructure – in particular – opportunities to collect rainwater, re-use grey water; and large scale uptake of solar water heating and solar power.

'In other words being self-sufficient, as opposed to being controlled by strict requirements via the Tauranga City Plan and SmartGrowth,” says Catherine.

'There is potential for huge savings on infrastructure if this is carried out by developers, as opposed to council.

'We are living in a recession and should be looking at ways to simplify our strategies and policies – not grow them. The draft SmartGrowth strategy 2013 is over 160 pages. And a lot of what is in the strategy is a repetition of other work, such as the Tauranga City Plan.

'I understand that councils need to have a plan and some strategies – but please reduce the size of your strategy, and change the name from SmartGrowth to say ‘Kiwigrowth' or something more relevant to Tauranga and New Zealanders.”

SmartGrowth member and Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby asked Catherine if she was aware that the now $102 million Southern Pipeline was started primarily for environmental reasons, to prevent the overflowing of sewage into Tauranga harbour when it rains.

He says Catherine would be aware of the city council's current issue, dealing with the results of a developer putting in infrastructure in Boscabel Drive.

There had been similar experiences in Papamoa with two package sewerage plants. Once a developer vests the development with the council, issues with the infrastructure become a council problem.

Craig Batchelar, speaking to Omanawa Holdings' submission, criticised the draft strategy's claimed 50-year term, which is based on population figures that haven't been extended since the original strategy was developed in 2001, making it only a 38-year strategy.

The draft strategy also fails to substantially deliver on employment.

'Employment and the associated demographics of business are vital to an understanding of growth drivers and infrastructure requirements, particularly in the transport arena,” says Craig. 'For example, the planned traffic model update requires employment forecasts for a 20-30 year period, at mesh block level access across 17 industrial classifications.

'The previous strategy was developed from rigorous employment forecasting that was seen as crucial to planning and decision-making. The commentary that is included is generic, and provides no basis for issue identification and strategy development.”

The halving of the Bay of Plenty's population growth rate over two consecutive census periods from 15 per cent to eight per cent is significant, says Craig. Population growth is the cornerstone of the strategy; and an understanding of whether this is a trend or anomaly must be established.

The lack of sub-regional policy alignment displays a major failure of the SmartGrowth patnership, says Craig. There is a need for sub-regional policy alignment, following the logical sequence from high-level spatial planning, regional policy, through to regional and district plans.

'For the last cycle of planning the exact reverse of this has occurred, resulting in very inefficieint processes and needless expense and conflict,” says Craig.