House prices are lower, lifestyle isn\u2019t sacrificed and for some people, the commute to Tauriko can be quicker than travelling across Tauranga during peak traffic.<\/p>\n
That made me wonder whether we should start thinking about Waikato differently.<\/p>\n
Not as Tauranga\u2019s neighbour, but as part of our broader labour market and intertwined economies.<\/p>\n
In the same sense that Tauranga\u2019s harbour bridge brought together the two very different communities of Tauranga and Mount Maunganui, is the Kaimai Range Tauranga\u2019s new harbour bridge?<\/p>\n
The push-and-pull factors for more of the Western Bay\u2019s workforce to live in Waikato are growing. More people are weighing up the trade-off between housing affordability, lifestyle and commute times and, increasingly, those choices extend beyond traditional regional boundaries.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not advocating for a single local government entity, but I am advocating for the Waikato and Western Bay councils and the Government to get serious about future-proofing this corridor.<\/p>\n
It is one of New Zealand\u2019s most important long-term challenges, as the decisions made over the next decade could shape the future success of the Golden Triangle, and therefore New Zealand\u2019s economic prosperity.<\/p>\n
The Kaimai Range has traditionally been viewed as a natural boundary separating Tauranga and Waikato. Photo \/ Alex Cairns<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t just another transport link. The Hamilton to Tauranga rail and state highway corridor underpins New Zealand\u2019s export goods to and from the Port of Tauranga, making it one of New Zealand\u2019s most strategically important export corridors.<\/p>\n
Getting it right matters not only for the Bay of Plenty and Waikato, but for the country.<\/p>\n
The Kaimai Range has traditionally been viewed as a natural boundary separating Tauranga and Waikato and yet, economically, that boundary is becoming increasingly blurred.<\/p>\n
Businesses recruit from both sides of the range. Students move between the regions. Freight flows continuously between the Port of Tauranga and Waikato. Families are already making housing decisions that span both regions.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re becoming one connected economic area, even if our planning systems haven\u2019t fully caught up.<\/p>\n
Some of those longer-term questions are already being explored through the Future Proof Hamilton to Tauranga Corridor Spatial Plan, being led by Waikato Regional Council.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t really a discussion about roads, rail or buses. It\u2019s about how we connect people with jobs, businesses with talent, and exporters with markets across one of New Zealand\u2019s most important economic corridors.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the question isn\u2019t whether Matamata is becoming Tauranga\u2019s western suburb.<\/p>\n
The real question is whether we\u2019re planning for the region we\u2019re becoming, or the regions we used to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"House prices are lower, lifestyle isn\u2019t sacrificed and for some people, the commute to Tauriko can be quicker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[36006,99505,5195,9218,2199,124,113595,13689,5346,42701,78,16768,30506,3180,111,43,139,1536,69,101178,8467,38111,9979,29756,1227,37865,223,52,4276,2963],"class_list":["post-536865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-36006","tag-anywhere","tag-be","tag-before","tag-city","tag-could","tag-cowley","tag-expansion","tag-expected","tag-frontier","tag-in","tag-matamata","tag-matt","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-overtake","tag-population","tag-projections","tag-right","tag-statistics","tag-tauranga","tag-taurangas","tag-the","tag-wellington","tag-why","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}