Motueka West development plan ready to view

March 13th, 2013
[by David Armstrong]

The revised plan for the proposed long-term Motueka West development will be presented to Tasman District Council in April and then be publicly notified for consultation, Motueka Community Board members were told yesterday.

The revisions to the long-awaited Motueka West and Motueka Central rezoning and plan follow a period of proposals and submissions almost two years ago (see our earlier story here and background and history here.)

Community board members were briefed at yesterday's monthly meeting by Rose Biss, TDC policy planner, and crucially involves splitting the plan change into two separate plan changes for the West development (between King Edward and Whakarewa streets and through to Te Awhina Marae) and the Central zone changes around Wallace and Wilkinson streets.

This, explained Councillor Barry Dowler, will enable each to proceed without being held up by any problems with the other.

Rose reported that a council workshop had been held in November 2012 to discuss how the plan change should be progressed, and community board chairman David Ogilvie had attended. The board had also submitted its ideas back in May 2011.

Rose said that the resulting revisions were fairly minor and involved mainly widening the greenway systems (for stormwater disposal and recreation), handling long term leases, updating the information from business owners on demand for commercial and industrial land, integrating with changes to the aerodrome planning and management, and the cost and timing of services.

Restoration of old wharf
Eileen Stewart gave a presentation aimed at getting the board's help and support for its approach to Council that some of the Port Motueka Endowment Fund be used for conservation of the old wharf near the end of Old Wharf Road.

She detailed some of the key aspects of the wharf's history and then showed photos of the current state of structural disrepair and unsafe parts. Tidal action is undermining the stone wall foundations and eating away the core platform.

The wharf is a Category 2 historic place, being one of very few stone wharfs left and the only one using local stone (Torrent Bay granite), and the surrounding area is becoming increasingly popular for its structures, fishing and walkway users.

The board were generally supportive of the idea, but said they needed a ballpark figure for the cost of restoring the structure to historic places standards before they could take it any further.

Footpath for Hau Road
Cr Barry Dowler reported at the community board meeting that he had obtained a good quote from CJ Industries to build a 255-metre gravel footpath along most of the length of Hau Road.

The board voted to accept the quote of just under $10,000 plus GST, which will be paid for from this year's Community Board Special Projects budget, already agreed to.

Speed limit change proposal
The board decided against the only change to speed limit in the town area suggested by the council - the section of Queen Victoria Street between College Street and the entry road to Marchwood Park (see our earlier story here).

It had been suggested that this section, currently set at 50kph, be raised to 70kph, but board members said this would be confusing to change so quickly from 50 to 70 and back to 50 within the space af less than a kilometre.

Discretionary Fund grants
The board heard and approved two applications for discretionary funds: $300 for two prizes to be awarded for building vehicles from recycled materials at the high school's "Rock n Wheels" fundraising festival, and $230 to the Family Service Centre for the hire of portaloos for its Children's Day pool party held a week ago.

Comment by Beth Bryant:
[Posted 18 March 2013]

Re the Historic Wharf, great that someone is looking at this again. Well done. In doing so, it could be noted that the pohutakawa will also be causing damage. The pohutakawa way of growing is to take advantage of minute cracks to establish its initial tiny rooting system and then increase its root size - thus eventually causing more severe cracking.

It could also be noted that pohutakawa is actually a weed in this area - not only because of its vast seeding problem, but also because more significantly it crosses with the local rata - meaning that we eventually end up loosing rata.

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