VISION KERIKERI CHAIRMAN'S REPORT 2011
Good evening and welcome.
Our District Plan was conceived in the 1990’s when it was believed minimal regulation and markets would provide necessary discipline and economic perfection.
Leaky buildings and failed New Zealand finance companies have proven that weak controls can be bad for your health and greed and self-interest are poor motives for a good society and strong communities. We have a local example of that sort of attitude.
Today submissions closed for Plan Change 8, an Amenity Chapter for The District Plan, which would provide some rules to look after our entries to town. Despite Council, partly at our instigation, discussing the issue with key stakeholders before releasing the proposed chapter for public comment, there has been opposition to what is perceived as an attack on inviolate property rights. A flyer has been distributed along presumably all the roads involved.
This is of course a democratic right but I’ll quote from a message I received from one of our members this week. ”My heart sank when we received that flyer the other day. Can't they see that their own commercial future depends on the extent to which Kerikeri is seen as a beautiful, green, desirable place for people to visit and live? It's beyond me”. I trust that good people will have put in submissions.
However if we fail with this simple issue and self-interest prevails at the expense of the wider community, there may be little hope of community commitment for dealing with more complex issues such as the remainder of The Structure Plan, clean water, coastal access, effects of climate change, depleting fossil fuels to name just a few. Trying to get protection for our entry corridors has consumed much of our limited time this year but we have continued to press for the CBD Alternative Route from Butler to Homestead and Clarke Roads.
We could use some good urban design for developing the town centre and a grid road system is an essential precondition as envisaged in the Structure Plan. However we were dismayed that in the Annual Plan Council intends to cease land purchases and if this road is to proceed it should be as a targeted rate. We oppose a targeted rate for this strategic infrastructure as Kerikeri is clearly the administrative and commercial centre of a much wider district. Kerikeri lacks strategic planning, and for example has a dysfunctional traffic system, which will only get worse, as no exit streets direct traffic onto the few main roads.We support the Council in trying to resolve the expensive problem of waste water.
A lack of reticulated sewerage is creating sprawl, and rezoning for more intensive development in The Structure Plan (our Strategic Plan) around the CBD cannot go ahead.
An investigation of the council’s performance prepared for the Minister for the Environment in February 2010 discusses the district plan with its many flaws and that remedying its flaws should be a priority and also poor use of planning resources which could have been better directed toward remedying some of the flaws in the district plan. Most qualified planners were employed on resource and building consents instead of the district plan. So what has changed since?
The Amenity Chapter has been notified. Systematically tidying up loose ends in the district plan with Plan Changes 5 & 6 has been heard by Commissioners, and we are pleased that Plan Change 1 for encouraging sustainable energy production and self-sufficiency has been published. Your committee made submissions to these and to The Northland Regional Council 10 year Policy Statement. In February Council policy planners put forward a planning programme for The District Plan. This includes Plan Change 10, Rural Amenity/character and non rural activities and Plan Change 11 about urban design includingthe Urban Design Protocoland outdoor space/green space requirements. We conclude that there has been change but we will watch this space carefully.
Council is short of money but if essential work is deferred and when growth resumes, without investment in planning and maintenance, rate increases may be politically and financially unsustainable and an unsustainable maintenance back log may occur.
For that reason we suggested at the Annual plan that residential rates for which an increase of +1.9% is proposed be increased to say the rate of inflation. Council has just asked for nominations for trees worthy of protection which will impact on vegetation rules in the District Plan. We will ask for your assistance and send out more details.
This year we plan to get underway a track to the waterfall on Wairoa Stream which has been discussed for perhaps 20 years. We will continue to seek to educate, and encourage thinking about a vision for our future.
My thanks to the committee for their efforts this year, all of them are busy on other community activities. Bob Bubendorfer is retiring as secretary.
We will miss his efficient conduct of our affairs over many years. Jill Smith also resigned during this term and we already miss her terrier like qualities and hounding of the Council.
We do need a new secretary. Do we have any takers? We could do more with more committee members - only common sense is required.
Thank you too to our members for your support this year.
Rod Brown - Chairman
I am grateful yet again for the support of the committee who again unselfishly gave their time and energy as they have for the near ly 5 years since we were formed in September 2004. Thank you too to our members – you are absolutely essential to our existence without you we can do nothing. Almost all the committee has been together since the beginning. We are grateful to have Bob Bubendorfer back as secretary after an illness. Unfortunately Gary Weeds having just rejoined passed away before his contribution and experience could be realised. We could do with some fresh blood. It is not onerous and you don’t need to be a planning expert. Common sense and an interest in your community are the key skills required.
The opposition to the 8 level building and a reinstatement of a height limit were about what we do not want for Kerikeri. These were products of a very permissive ideology and Council restricted its discretion so that few matters needed to be considered and certainly not amenity values. This gives great scope to developers but needs vigilance. Joyce Mason and Nancy Pickmere recognised this when they mobilized in 1969 to oppose a subdivision of 168 houses at the Basin even though the bulldozers had already started. The nation, Pakeha and Maori , would be the poorer without their vigilance and perseverance. I question why the Council restricts its discretion in the Commercial Zone.
What do we want now? The car yard which set up in the Red Shed on Kerikeri Road which could not be prevented, and the 8 level building, made us realise the deficiencies in the District Plan and that Kerikeri has no plan, after numerous previous and expensive failed plans. Reinstating a height limit was a holding pattern only, while we undertook intense lobbying for the Structure Plan. In my last address we said that we would advocate that momentum on the Structure Plan, which Council adopted in September 2007, be maintained. We did succeed at last years Annual Plan submissions in funds being allocated by Council, but this has been mostly used for Kerikeri flood plain studies. So there hasn’t been too much momentum and it is still unfinished business. Two important elements of it are the amenity values of Kerikeri Road & SH 10 and the town centre has no plan for development. A new Gateway Amenity Zone needs legal inclusion as a Plan Change to the District Plan and we could use some good urban design to determine how the town centre should develop.
It is not simple to define what we like about Kerikeri Road and how we could look after it so this year we have engaged a planning consultant to help us. We have had discussions with the KK/Waipapa Planning Assn representing some land owners and developers to see if we have any common ground but without success to date. They believe that our present effects based District Plan is adequate to protect it. This is incorrect. There are about 54 plots of land within 100 metres each side of KK Road which can be developed and under the present District Plan a row of car yards and Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets cannot be prevented. I might add that 12 other District Plans from Whangarei to Whakatane have been examined and all of them list activities which are not permitted in Rural Zones and we need rules which state what activities are, or alternatively, are not permitted.
This year has been busy and we have been active in pursuing matters affecting the quality of life or our natural or built environment. We made a submission and attended a hearing on the BOI Recreation Plan, which we were able to influence, and consistent with our belief that open space and walking tracks contribute to our quality of life, we joined the Doves Bay residents in successfully opposing the sale of the Doves Bay Reserve. Last year we advocated for walking tracks in our vicinity but without effect but are pleased that Wairoa Stream track is listed for this year in the 10 year Plan. As I mentioned last year there has been no progress on the track strategy published in January 2005.
At the last AGM I discussed trees and their importance in our visual and cultural landscape and mentioned that wind breaks and specimen trees have been vanishing. It should come as no surprise that we joined with local residents to save the local Redwoods. Council officers over reacted after two severe storms in July 2008 and recommended removal of about 130, 80 year old trees because of an errant branch. Common sense prevailed and the trees remain but maintenance by Council, including removing weaker trees and pruning, which was part of the decision, has not taken place. So the Redwoods and the community will still be vulnerable from the next storm.
We supported the Booth sculpture in the Domain and a more imaginative landscaping plan, and are pleased that our approach has been rewarded by the appointment of our Deputy Chairman, Iain Morrison to the Domain Trust. Rolands Wood was promoted with Council and local residents and under local residents will now contribute to open space and amenity.
We supported the completion of The Centre which does not yet provide all the services intended and did not support the retention of the Memorial Hall but in the present property market decline, the Memorial Hall has not yet been sold. We made lengthy submissions on the Kerikeri Waste Water scheme without effect, but the consent for wastewater has 42 conditions attached and this will lead to much better environmental outcomes than the present inadequate sewerage system.
We have made submissions on three major proposed developments, Quail Ridge Country Club (273 dwellings), Borneo Developments (134 units) on Cobham Road, and Tubbs Farm (179 houses) on Kapiro Road. Our approach has not been to oppose, but to make proposals which, if accepted, would make them more sustainable or give a wider community benefit. For Quail Ridge we proposed , for example use of solar water systems and a land transfer to the Rainbow Falls track as a development contribution, and supported a foot bridge from Quail Ridge across Rainbow Falls track and KK River. This would enable a circular walking track up each side of KK River to Wairoa Stream.
For Borneo Developments we proposed a riverside walkway and a foot bridge across the Wairoa Stream as a development contribution which would give access to Wairoa waterfall from Cobham Road, and also proposed that urban design principles apply. For urban design to succeed it needs a willing developer and the developer has indicated he is willing to reconsider the design. This would be a major breakthrough. However both developments are Private Plan changes which Council opposes and the matter is before the Environment Court.
Tubbs Farm is designed on sustainable principles including 23 ha of native forest planting which is welcomed. However it ignores the presence of kiwi on the river boundary and we have submitted that it could be improved by a kiwi buffer zone along the river boundary and by excluding dogs. At an average of one dog per house a potential 179 dogs would be brought into an area where only farm dogs existed before and threaten the good work of the Kiwi Foundation. The developer has now proposed to Council to limit dogs to only the 31 outer sections. Solar water heating on each house which would save about 540000 KWh p.a. Such measures should enhance the marketing of the development to sustainably minded purchasers. We have proposed that the sewerage system be taken over by Council, in lieu of later connection to the proposed KK wastewater system when finally available, and be extended to service Skudders Beach.
This coming year we will continue, as ever, to seek to educate, and encourage thinking about a vision for our future. Thank you for coming tonight. \\
Definition roles and responsibilities of the FNDC - Eastern Community Board
( From FNDC website)
The role of the Community Boards is to:
In addition Community Boards have a range of powers for which they are responsible under delegation from Council.
Council Delegations to Community BoardsTerms of Reference
Delegations
Urban Design Protocol
http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/urban/
The New Zealand Urban Design Protocol is a significant policy document that sets out an agreed vision and a set of principles to further urban design in New Zealand. It is the first step in a major government-led programme of action to increase the quality of urban design and our built environment in a sustainable manner.
The wider programme, outlined in the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol will contribute to a significant difference in planning processes and systems, from regulatory systems to strategic development and to how quality urban design issues are factored into all planning-related decision making processes for the built environment.
The New Zealand Planning Institute particularly welcomes the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol , as it is a significant step for the planning profession. It facilitates the axiom that good planning is good urban design and provides an additional mechanism for planning to maintain its central place in the proactive design and management of our town and city systems. The Institute is proud to be a signatory to the New Zealand Urban Design Protocol and pleased to be able to make this award to the Ministry for the Environment.”