March 2007 Vision Kerikeri Inc.

Annual General Meeting

Our AGM will be held at the Centre on Thursday 24^th May. We have an excellent speaker organised. See more details in our next newsletters.

Special General Meeting

This was held at the beginning of this month, and a change to our rules to enable us to qualify for tax exempt status was passed unanimously.

Aroha Island Update

The committee formed after the public meeting in February worked hard to put together a tender which was submitted to the QE2 Trust. Jill Smith has contributed greatly to this process. .We now have to wait for a decision.

Taronui Bay

A letter by Rod Brown on p3 in the Bay Chronicle of 15^th March “Preserve Public Access” explains your committee’s position on this longstanding issue.

Structure Plan

The second open forum meeting when details of our proposed structure plan will be released will be held on Wednesday 11^th April at the Centre.

Watch your mail box for details from the FNDC in the next few days, or look at www.fndc.govt.nz

Kerikeri Road Update

A VKK subcommittee is looking at ways that we may preserve the amenity values along this entry to our town.

Panache Classic Cars opened without having lodged a resource consent. We raised the fact that the company was apparently selling cars without a consent from FNDC, which has since required that a resource consent be lodged and the owner has now done so. At the time of writing we are not aware of the FNDC’s response to this application.

We made a submission last year to an application by Jennian Homes for an office and retail building on the corner of Kerikeri Road and Maraenui Drive . Several local residents also objected. Our submission contributed to Council requiring conditions of consent, including proper landscaping of the road frontage.

Currently another application has been made by David Reid Homes for an office building sharing the same site as the Japanese restaurant at 310 Kerikeri Road . If the project as notified was to proceed some of the beautiful trees along the frontage would be lost to car parking. The site owner has requested a meeting with us to discuss various non-complying issues and we will be pleased to do so.

Rates Inquiry

The Government has started a process to look at the systems that local bodies use. A public meeting will be held in Whangarei on 20^th April, and submissions close at the end of April.

Details can be found on www.ratesinquiry.govt.nz

The committee is working on a submission for VKK and if members have any views please let us know.

FNDC Annual Plan

A summary of the latest proposed Annual Plan will be mailed out shortly.

The full document can be viewed at the Council Office in the Proctor Library or on the website www.fndc.govt.nz

Buzzword

We are going to have a new buzz-word each month. This month the word is SUSTAINABILITY

It’s new meaning has evolved recently, so don’t try to look it up in your old dictionary. The Ministry for the Environment definition is “sustainability is about meeting the needs of today without adversely impacting on the needs of tomorrow”.

It has become a useful prefix. For instance we have:

Sustainable Environment

Sustainable Development

Sustainable Lifestyle

Sustainable Building

Sustainable Growth? – No, wait a minute, this wouldn’t work with unlimited growth would it?

One commentator has remarked “no one knows what sustainability will be like. No waste produced, everything recycled and sent back into the chain. We are tinkering on the edges, but if we don’t take the first step we’ll never get to the tenth”.

The FNDC Resource Recovery Centre

Planned to be built between Kerikeri and Waipapa at the SH10 bridge gravel dump, opposite Waimate North Rd this year will be a good start.

Town planning 528 AD

In ancient Rome the Justinian Code included articles to protect light access to rooms on the sunny side of houses and public buildings.

Contact Us at : Vision Kerikeri Inc.,P.O.Box 793 Kerikeri.Email: info@visionkerikeri.org Website: www.visionkerikeri.org or telephone Rod Brown at 4074294

We welcome new members, your support and your feedback.