A once powerful voice on the Tauranga City Council has used her influence to set the proposed supermarket for Welcome Bay on to a new planning pathway.
Former councillor Mary Dillon said the process needed for Waitaha Reserve to become the site for a supermarket was fraught with enormous difficulties.
Instead, she urged yesterday's community and culture committee meeting to plan for a real town centre to serve all of Tauranga's southeastern suburbs including Welcome Bay, Maungatapu, and Ohauiti.
With Waipuna Park already discounted as a site for a supermarket, Mrs Dillon said Owens Park was never a goer while the third contender, Waitaha Reserve, was too important to lose.
"It is not a reserve we should even be remotely considering."
Committee chairman Terry Molloy defused a potentially controversial decision facing the committee around the staff recommendation to progress with considering Waitaha Reserve and Owens Park as potential sites for a supermarket.
Supermarket chain owners had tried without success to obtain privately owned land in Welcome Bay, leaving many in the community frustrated.
The committee voted 5-1 to align the Waitaha Reserve and Owens Park options for a supermarket into the wider Welcome Bay and Ohauiti Planning Study.
Mr Molloy said it would give the council breathing space.
"We really do need to pause. There are much wider issues than just the supermarket."
He added he would not have supported putting a supermarket on Waitaha Reserve.
Councillor Catherine Stewart was the only opposing voice. She wanted the council to "put this matter to bed" and to decide it did not support commercial enterprises being on a reserve within such a built-up residential area.
She accused the council of dragging the chain on an issue that had been around for two years.
Councillor Bill Grainger disagreed that they were dragging the chain. He said the council was going to the next step and there would be more meetings, more discussions and more debate.
Councillor Steve Morris said the council was in a situation where it was suffering from a failure to plan.
"It is entirely appropriate to have this wider look at the catchment in terms of commercial areas."
Councillor Kelvin Clout said it was heartening to see that a lot of the work on the supermarket location could be done in parallel with the Welcome Bay and Ohauiti Planning Study. The first draft of the planning study was due out later this year.
He said it was important that the council continued to be the facilitator for getting a supermarket in Welcome Bay, on condition that community facilities lost were replaced and improved.
Mrs Dillon said the site of the supermarket had to be above the reach of rising sea levels from global warming, leaving Waitaha Reserve as the only option.
Another public speaker, Alan Northcote, accused the council of buttering up big business to the detriment of small businesses.