More than 2600 written submissions on the council's draft 10-year plan were received by noon yesterday, more than any previous plan.
Council strategy and governance general manager Sandy Graham said staff would analyse the submissions and then prepare reports to present to councillors for deliberations starting on May 14.
Feedback from social media still needed to be collated and added to the total, Ms Graham said.
Some of the most commonly raised topics were the proposed bridge linking the city and harbour, the upgrades of the central city and tertiary precincts and rates rises, she said.
For the first time the council held the hearings on the plan partway through the submission period, but because of the high number of requests two extra hearings will be held on April 26 and May 1.
Councillors would consider all feedback and debate any changes during deliberations before the plan was finally adopted on June 26.
More than 2000 submissions were received on the last long-term plan, adopted in 2015.
Mayor Dave Cull said he put the large number of submissions down to the "concise'' consultation document and the number of households the document was delivered to.
Holding the hearings partway though the submission period also helped spark interest in the plan, Mr Cull said.
He expected there would be strong views both for and against the plan, particularly regarding the proposed rates increase of 7.3% in the first year and about 4.5% in each of the following nine years.
"We've had quite a lot of submissions concerned about the rate rises, which I would expect, but nonetheless there was still a huge amount of positivity and support for the plan as well.''
While the number of submissions was important, councillors also needed to consider the arguments put forward, he said.
"It's not just a numbers game ... but obviously numbers count too. If you get a large number for or against something, that has an effect as well.''
