A contingent of Mount Maunganui residents are fighting back against council plans to develop the Phoenix car park into a shopping hub.

Led by resident Bain McDonald, a delegation took an offer to council's Projects and Monitoring Committee on Monday to convert the central parking lot into an urban park instead.

Residents are fighting against the council's planned development of Pheonix carpark.

He's suggesting the project can be paid for from development contributions set aside for reserve funding.

The argument, backed up by architect Graham Price, is that downtown Mount Maunganui doesn't need more shops. The council can instead take advantage of the opportunity to create a multi-use urban space, a place for markets and an outdoor room for people who just want to chill.

Bain presented a slideshow of examples of different adaptations of urban spaces.

Mount resident Dave Macfarlane says if council is serious about attracting people into the district, it needs to start thinking about what people want.

'People coming home want this sort of thing, open spaces where they can hang out, a boutique space. The last thing they want is a warehouse downtown, that would kill it,” says Dave.

For about 18 months the council has been seeking developers to build a shopping precinct incorporating public car parking on the Phoenix carpark.

The Phoenix carpark is the only paid parking in Mount Maunganui, and for that reason is poorly subscribed except for six weeks during summer, says Bain.

As they were speaking in the meeting's open forum, councillors made no decision.