Traffic is likely to be banned from the Mapua wharf area in a first step ahead of a master plan for the popular visitor destination.

The plan is expected to be released at the end of the year for the community to have its say. It will cover all the wharf area including the vacant site where the Touch the Sea Aquarium was burnt down a year ago.

Tasman District Council Moutere-Waimea ward councillor Brian Ensor chaired the group made up of business and community members working on the project.

He believed the area would become a lot busier once the Tasman's Great Taste Trail cycleway was opened.

With potential for conflict between cyclists, pedestrians and vehicles, they were looking at banning vehicles from going into the wharf area, he said.

He hoped the ban would be in place by early December in time for the summer peak season.

"We are wanting to make it much safer," Mr Ensor said.

There would be a drop-off place at the end of Aranui Rd, he said.

The council's commercial property division had asked for expressions of interest for what the former aquarium site might be used for.

The council owns the land, and several people were interested in putting up a building on it to lease out, he said.

While the community initially would have loved another aquarium, people now realised that was not going to happen, he said.

"Probably there are enough cafes and bars so it's likely to be some other business that can add to the ambience of the area."

Mr Ensor hoped the former aquarium site would be one of the first issues the newly-formed council commercial committee, that would deal with property, would look at.

Urban designers from Wellington had looked at the waterfront area and given ideas and a discussion document which the working group was working with and talking to the community, he said.

They hoped to have a master plan ready for consultation by the end of the year, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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