Pilot Bay's planned boardwalk has been partially re-routed and narrowed in a compromise bid to win over opponents to the $500,000 project.
Tauranga City Council urban designer Clinton Bowyer yesterday unveiled plans for a revamped boardwalk.
Pilot Bay - Mark Mckeown / File.
Instead of the boardwalk being 3m wide for nearly its entire length, the revised design sees it shrink to 2.4m at its narrowest point where it runs between the norfolk pines and the side of the road.
Otherwise it will mostly be 2.7m except for 3m where it runs along the front of the Salisbury Wharf carpark, the section from the waka shed to the toilets, and in front of the northern angled carparks.
The other major change was to pull it back onto the grass along the section where it originally ran close to the beachfront.
Mr Bowyer said pulling it back would also allow them to take sand excavated from building the boardwalk and put it onto the neighbouring eroding foreshore - building it up by about three metres.
The new design, along with how the badly eroded northern end of Pilot Bay could benefit from the dredgings of the shipping channels, will be put to the council for a final decision on April 8.
The other major issue of the five pedestrian crossings along The Mall will be debated by the council on April 22.
Councillor Larry Baldock said it was a good compromise although he wondered whether making the boardwalk 2.7 wide from Commons Ave may be missing the point because this was the most heavily used part of Pilot Bay.
Wheelchair councillor Tony Christiansen said from everything he had seen, 2.7m would be more than adequate width.
Colleen Spiro, who created a Facebook page opposing the boardwalk, said afterwards the boardwalk was a done deal.