Tauranga's new city council is being thrown in the deep end with decisions required on the $40million urban flood protection, the Greerton Library development and tsunami warning sirens during council meetings today and tomorrow.

The flooding issue is first up with residents from Matua and Mount Maunganui addressing their concerns to councillors during the public forum at the start of today's meeting.

Flooding issues and tsunami sirens are up for discussion today.

After severe flooding in April this year, Tauranga City Council opted to spend $40m across five years to address stormwater issues – subject to confirmation through the annual plan each year and the long term plan.

Today's agenda opens the possibility the new council could reverse or modify the previous decision, advising there are other tools to manage flood risk beside infrastructure improvements.

TCC reports a balance needs to be struck between expenditure on new infrastructure, community expectation and other options available.

Council spent $80m on stormwater management across four years following the 2005 floods.

In February 2009 councillors were told another $170m needed to be spent across the city, but they instead limited the stormwater budget to $5m per year.

The areas most affected to date are within Otumoetai, Bureta, Matua, Mount industrial, Mount residential and parts of Papamoa.

Council will also attempt to settle the tsunami sirens debate, with a recommendation to discontinue the Tsunami Siren Warning project and adopt the ‘resilience' approach to community engagement and preparedness.

The advice now is for more effective and cheaper ways of warning people about the possibility of a tsunami.

Information now available to council shows the source of the maximum credible tsunami event for Tauranga City is the southern section of the Kermadec Trench. Tsunami waves of between 12.5 and 14metres in height from such an event will arrive at Papamoa about 50 minutes after the earthquake.

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management has since confirmed in the case of a local source tsunami, an official warning cannot be issued in time to be able to activate a siren network. Advice now is to spend the money on escape routes instead.

Thirdly, a decision is expected to be made on the Greerton Library development at 9am on Thursday.

The previous council pulled out of funding the library extension this year, stating preventing floods was more important. The library's supporters challenged the decision, as the money for the library extension comes from development contributions, and cannot be spent on anything else.

Councillors are also being asked to remove the Park Street parking issue from the public consultation process in the 2014/15 annual plan.

The previous Council resolved in September to try a one way system in Park Street. Council staff say because it only affects local residents, the fate of the informal free off-street parking area does not have to be consulted on with the wider community.

Council want the previous resolution withdrawn and Park Street dealt with as part of the annual minor safety works programme.