Community invited to have say on Orewa Centre plan

Business representatives get to grips with the Orewa Centre Plan. The public has a chance for input at a meeting this weekend.

The architect of the draft Orewa Centre Plan, town planner Jason Evans, presented his vision for the town centre at a breakfast meeting on September 8.Few who attended the meeting raised any issues with his proposals, which include completing the Orewa Boulevard project, redeveloping the library and Community Centre, and providing a multi-level car park.

The meeting was hosted by the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board, which invited local businesses to attend: around 20 people took up the offer. The local board commissioned the plan, which was revealed in Hibiscus Matters two months ago (July 1 edition), and hopes to use it as a blueprint provided there is buy-in from the community.

“Although it is a non-statutory document, the local board intends to use it as an investment tool and not let it languish in a cupboard,” local board chair Julia Parfitt said. “For that we need to gain solid community support.”

Mr Evans stressed the need for “an uplift in the quality of the public realm” in Orewa town centre. As one of the planners involved in the Boulevard project – a plan to slow traffic and improve Hibiscus Coast Highway from the south Orewa bridge to the north bridge – he is still hoping to see that completed. Under the former Rodney District Council, only the section of the Boulevard through the town centre was built.

Options for extending walking and cycleways are also included in the draft plan as well as landscaping to offset intensified residential development.

Mr Evans said one of the biggest issues in Orewa is lack of car parking. He said it’s not enough to assume most people will use public transport, as Orewa is the kind of town that people drive to. His suggestion is that a redevelopment of the current Orewa Library site (together with the adjacent pharmacy) could feature apartments wrapped around the outside and library and medical services below, with multi-level parking concealed within to mitigate the visual effects of a car parking block. The allowable height limit on that site is seven storeys in the proposed Auckland Unitary Plan.

He said that with large sites for redevelopment in short supply, opportunities are also presented by the Council-owned Service Centre (and former Rodney District Council offices) in Centreway Rd and the Community Centre in Orewa Square. He suggested re-housing Council services in the Community Centre, which could be redeveloped to its maximum allowable height of around seven storeys, and that the current Service Centre land could be sold for intensive residential development.

The public can have a detailed look at the plan and have their questions answered at a morning drop-in session to be held at Orewa Library on Saturday, September 19, from 10am–1pm. All are welcome.

The plan is also linked here. [11MB PDF]