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Council adopts Mangawhai Spatial Plan

 

 

thumbnail Mangawhai aerial-255JULIA WADE

Just prior to Christmas, the plan to manage Mangawhai’s ongoing and future evolution was adopted by members of Kaipara District Council (KDC) at their last meeting for 2020, on December 16.

Developed on behalf of KDC by commissioned planners who worked with the community through focus groups, consultation sessions, meetings and workshops in 2019, the Mangawhai Spatial Plan (MSP) presents a ‘spatial picture’ of the area’s growth over the next 30 years.

The MSP is an essential guiding tool to help council aim for the vision set in the 2017 MSP – ‘Mangawhai will grow well. While we grow, we shall care for nature, encourage a slow pace and active lifestyle, and retain the coastal character and history’ – by managing the community’s unique social, economic and environmental needs ‘with specific, prioritised initiatives’.

 

Seven themes
Seven themes are outlined in the MSP, developed with their own set of objectives: Natural environment, Iwi and cultural, Three Waters (efficient, clean infrastructure), Living environment (diverse and affordable living), Community (facilities and programmes], Employment and Transport.

Identified in the MSP ‘Three Waters’ is the ongoing critical issue many have concerning waste and clean, drinkable water, with planners recommending actions to dispose, re-use and treat waste and stormwater discharges with minimum adverse effects on Mangawhai’s natural environment, to reassess climate change’s possible effects on rainfall and residents’ ability to collect rain, and support local water suppliers and initiatives. Also recognised was the need for careful financial planning of Three Waters infrastructure to prevent economic stress on the community and KDC, with the MSP stating ‘It is expected that the cost of growth will be met by land developers and recovered through development contributions’.
 

Council and community
Kaipara District Council mayor Dr Jason Smith says the MSP was a collaboration between the council and community, with residents having significant input into the developing design.

“We found individuals held many different views and we believe, by listening to what people said, we have achieved the right balance between respecting what people want,

keeping our environment and our culture sustainable, limiting the cost of infrastructure and providing for the living, employment and transport needs of the current and future Mangawhai community,” he says. “We’re grateful to all who have taken the opportunity to contribute to the plan.”

The MSP is also unique Smith says as the district has not had such an in-depth, visionary plan to guide development and growth in the area in past years.

“We’re one of the smallest districts in New Zealand to have set out a 30 year spatial plan for its entire district… Kaipara is punching well above its weight with all of this work, including a dedicated spatial plan for Mangawhai alone,” he says. “Mangawhai is a surfie town that’s now growing up which makes it so attractive, but it’s grown without a great plan to guide it. That’s why we are seeing tensions with aspects such as Wood Street and its one-way system which wouldn’t have been needed for a village of 400 people but now very much needs to be considered to keep everyone safe.

“The MSP will allow the council to be master, not servant, of growth and shaping the future of the overall place. The MSP will guide options for development, focus directions while also placing boundaries around what is sustainable and what is not. Councillors and the community are to be applauded for their contribution.”

Managing growth
With Mangawhai’s property market ‘booming’, community watchdogs, Mangawhai Matters Inc (MMI) executive member Joel Cayford, a senior New Zealand Planning Institute policy adviser, says council have ‘every reason to be enabling and promoting and expanding residential and commercial development opportunities’.

“Everyone wants a piece… developers, council and investors are generally aligned in wanting to benefit from this growth, while seeking to do the right thing as defined in law, but no more than that,” the former Auckland councillor says. “The risk is that rapid population growth, and poorly managed urban expansion will severely impact the amenity and lifestyle enjoyed by existing Mangawhai communities, as well as affecting natural resources, and can irreversibly damage the qualities and character held dear today.”

Generally, MMI supports the development of the MSP, noting the plan’s main strengths being its various assessments of prospective population growth and identifying land options for urbanisation, densification and upzoning (changing the zoning code to allow taller and/or denser buildings) so to accommodate residential growth.

However, Cayford says this makes the plan lean more towards being aspirational than ‘coordinating or regulating’ with core growth issues ‘of funding and provision of network, community and social infrastructure’ being sidestepped.

“The principal omission is a coordinating Infrastructure Plan, supported by growth numbers, with expert demand and capacity modelling, setting out staged new capital expenditure requirements, and a funding strategy showing how growth will pay for growth which has been consulted with the public.”

MMI are also concerned he says that the MSP is ‘essentially an underlying support document for Mangawhai Central and Private Plan Change 78 (PPC78)’.

“While being good in parts, good spatial planning is less about the ‘spatial plan’ and more about the ‘spatial planning process’,” he says. “We expect and hope that these gaps in the growth management process will be addressed by KDC in the upcoming draft Long Term Plan 2021-2031.”

 

‘Mangawhai is a surfie town that’s now growing up’ Kaipara mayor Dr Jason Smith says, and the recently adopted unique spatial plan is in place to help guide the areas ongoing growth.

 

“The risk is that rapid population growth, and poorly managed urban expansion, will severely impact the amenity and lifestyle… as well as affecting natural resources.”

- Joel Cayford, MMI


 
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