My Account
After almost a decade, plans to rebuild Orewa Surf Club have made a significant step forward, receiving approval from the landowner, Hibiscus & Bays Local Board, last week on November 25.
The club wants to redevelop the site by removing the existing clubrooms and storage containers alongside, and building a two-storey building and separate watchtower.
The proposed clubrooms will be set back an additional 6m from where the front of the building is now, with a footprint 42 percent larger than the existing clubrooms. The height on the western side is 0.5m over the 8m height guideline. The floor area, over two floors, is 79 percent bigger.
The ground floor includes a lobby, office, shop/kiosk, meeting rooms, toilet and changing facilities, bunkrooms, boatshed and storage. The first floor has a commercial restaurant that can accommodate 168 people, kitchen facilities, bar, gaming room, deck, office, meeting rooms, and toilets.
The watchtower will be closer to the beach than the current building. It has a medical room on the ground floor and viewing platform on the first floor.
Car parking around the building will reduce from 200 to 187 spaces and two pohutukawa trees will be removed.
In the report presented to the local board, Council staff noted that further refinements are required to the building’s design to reduce its visual dominance, particularly on the western side. The club has agreed to specify in more detail the treatment that will be applied to the western façade and a landscape plan is being prepared.
The local board’s approval of the plans prepared by Walker Community Architects has allowed the club to apply for resource consent, after which the process of obtaining funding can begin.
Orewa Surf Club chair John Chapman says it has been a long time coming because it’s such a huge undertaking. “This has enabled us to move forward and is a significant step, he says.
The new clubrooms are designed to meet the needs of members and guests and provide increased storage for rescue equipment, however Mr Chapman emphasised that the development is not only for members.
“The clubrooms are being redeveloped as a community asset and we want the community to come and use it,” he says.
The club hopes to lodge its resource consent application before Christmas and could have approval by the end of January or February.
Mr Chapman says the application does not need to be publicly notified because the plans are within the bounds of Council’s Reserve Management plan, although that decision rests with Council planners.
Orewa Surf Club has occupied the site on Orewa Reserve since 1950.
The original clubrooms were built in 1960 and additions were made in the late 1970s and again in the early 1990s.
Currently the club has more than 1000 members
