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A local community group is renewing its call for the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board to include a seawall as an option in the upcoming public consultation for the Ōrewa Reserve Future Management project.
The Ōrewa Reserve Community Association (ORCA), formed in July 2024, first submitted a proposal for a seawall to the board in August last year (Hibiscus Matters Sept 6, 2024) At the board’s March meeting, ORCA members Chris Carter and Stephen Havill presented a petition signed by 688 people in support of the seawall option.
The group is advocating for a 300-metre seawall to protect the reserve. They say this would maintain the current facilities and prevent the loss of trees and car parking, avoiding both disruption and additional costs for local, businesses, and the wider community.
Currently, Auckland Council has proposed four options for managing erosion along Ōrewa Beach Reserve. All of them focus on dune restoration, which includes allowing the high tide to return to its natural position, rebuilding dunes, and planting native grasses.
The council says these options were developed in response to the challenges it faced during the northern seawall and shared path project between Marine View and Kohu Street. That project involved a lengthy and costly resource consent process, and an appeal to the Environment Court.
“This is why we are considering other ways to manage erosion along Ōrewa Beach,” the council states on its project website.
The proposed options also involve the removal of 11 Norfolk pines and a number of pōhutukawa trees along the edge of the reserve, which the council says are at risk from coastal storms. These trees will be removed either all at once or gradually, with recreational facilities moved further inland. The council says this loss will be offset by plantings made previously by Rodney District Council, which are now maturing.
According to council, dune restoration will help maintain an area of dry sand on the beach even when the tide is high and provide a larger area of beach for public use.
However, ORCA argues that excluding the seawall option breaches both the Local Government Act and the Reserves Act. The Local Government Act requires councils to consider all reasonably practicable options when making decisions, while the Reserves Act states that public consultation must not have a predetermined outcome. The group says the board has failed to meet these obligations by presenting dune restoration as the only option.
ORCA further argues that the council’s concern about the cost of resource consents is not relevant in this case as the proposed seawall at the reserve would be easier to consent than the earlier northern project, because it could be placed outside the Coastal Marine Area and is located on council land.
They have urged the board to include the seawall as a fifth option to ensure a fair and transparent consultation process, which is scheduled to begin in April.
