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Ocean Beach to be focus of “Charrette” process
See also - Charrette information page
The future scope of Ocean Beach is a blank canvas at the moment but that’s all about to change as it becomes the focus of a “charrette” process.
Hastings District Council and Hill Country Corporation are joining forces to hold two weeks of intensive planning and design workshops between October 4 to13, and all Hawke’s Bay people are invited to take part.
The area spans about 9km starting from the existing bach settlement going north.
The joint project comes as a result of Council and Hill Country
Corporation securing the services of award-winning and internationally
acclaimed urban designers and town planners, RobertsDay (Australia)
and DPZ Pacific (United States), who will facilitate the workshops.
DPZ Pacific and RobertsDay work with communities on charrettes
all over the world and were in New Zealand last year helping
Tauranga City Council to plan for a new community at Papamoa
East.
They will meet with a cross-section of people including landowners, designers, council, tangata whenua, conservationists and community representatives, to draft a proposed plan for the Ocean Beach area on site at Haupouri Station Woolshed.
Hastings District Council Strategic Development Manager, Mark Clews, says the idea of the charrette gives the best chance of comprehensive environmentally sound planning into the future.
“What we don’t want to see are plan change applications coming in ad hoc over the next five to ten years where clearly the best result is a vision for the future which is shared by the community,” said Mr Clews.
“Council wants to ensure that Ocean Beach remains a special place by ensuring there is a collective approach to managing the area’s natural assets to guide conservation, landuse, public access and development.”
Mr Clews said the charrette was an open process.
“DPZ Pacific will be working alongside local experts from a range of fields to provide an objective, independent and fresh perspective.
“It will be really interesting to see what sort of draft they come up with and we encourage everyone to participate in this process,” he said.
Once the charrette is completed, Council will consult further with the people of Hastings district and seek submissions as part of its district plan change process in 2006.
Hill Country Corporation managing director Andy Lowe said the charrette would give a rare opportunity for Ocean Beach stakeholders, including the public, to consider the implications of a plan change for the whole of Ocean Beach before the statutory process began.
“We believe that a charrette is an extremely effective way of transforming a vision into reality and it has proven overseas and elsewhere in New Zealand to be the most efficient and cost-effective means of arriving at consensus for a plan,” Mr Lowe said.
“Under a standard consultation process the public would have their say once a plan was put forward, however the charrette offers the public an opportunity to be involved from the beginning,” he said.
People are urged to be involved in the charrette, both as observers during the first week of expert sessions and then as participants at the Community forum on Saturday October 8. Other public feedback sessions will be held throughout the charrette.
The charrette is being held on private farm land and site tours will be held before the community forum to point out key aspects of the land. The tours will provide people with an opportunity to experience aspects of Ocean Beach that they may not have seen before.
For more information contact:
Photo opportunities and on-going media enquiries
throughout the charrette process; please contact:
Julia Lang
Communications Officer
Hastings District Council
Ph: 878 0500 Cell: 027 275 5205
