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Mangawhai Matters Society Incorporated - Chairman's Report 2024

We have spent a lot of time and energy this year submitting on Plan Changes.

The hearing for Plan Change 83 – The Rise opposite the Sanctuary -was held in late March.  This plan change is for 380 lots and MM made an extensive submission mainly around protection of the harbour. The KDC has since approved the plan change and we are in the process of appealing the decision in the Environment Court.

 

Plan Change 84 – The Hills - between Mangawhai Central and Tara Rd- This plan change is for 600 lots and the hearing was held in May.

We also submitted on this plan Change and are still waiting on the outcome. Experience tells us we will be appealing the decision in the Environment Court as well.

 

A 750 lot Plan change along Black Swamp Rd is due to be filed in the next 12 months as well. Along with Mangawhai Central that is 2580

sections not counting the numerous smaller developments that are always ongoing. That’s an extra 6000 people.

1500 new dwellings were completed in the last 10 years, so we have 15 to 20 years supply of sections. My belief is some of these developers are going to start hurting.

Between the 2013 and 2023 Mangawhai population grew by 120% so it is not surprising we are facing exceptional growth challenges.

 

What are the challenges we face?

 

Infrastructure for development

–      Water supply, both private and public.

–      Road capacity into Mangawhai.

–      Sewage treatment and disposal.  We have short term incremental expansion plans in place but not sufficient to cater for double the population and we still face major questions over the long-term method and cost of disposal.

–      Stormwater management – we are faced with an ageing district stormwater network.

 

Public amenities

We have traditionally got by with largely volunteer-provided facilities such as MAZ and our walking tracks, the Museum, library, boat ramp, domain, MHRS and the like.  Relying on volunteers and donations will not be sufficient for a much bigger population with more diverse needs. The demand will continue to grow exponentially for the development of new facilities and the expansion and maintenance of existing ones

The Environment

Our research confirms what we all know – Mangawhai is defined by its harbour and the surrounding environment, particularly the spit, the surf coast, the beach, and the bush. The harbour and coast together provide huge environment, recreational, and aesthetic value.  This is what makes Mangawhai special.

 

What is MMI Doing?

We need to work to maintain and manage this special character in the face of the twin pressures of population growth and climate change. 

 

 Mangawhai Matters has been busy in these areas and will continue to be so. Here is a summary of where we are active.

 

With respect to infrastructure, we have been addressing the demands of development plans on infrastructure and how these might be met and funded, especially when the planning for individual developments does not appear to address the impacts on the wider community infrastructure. 

 

With respect to amenity, we continue to highlight to the council and developers that many of our facilities are under stress and that community character is threatened by the imposition of city planning design.

 

With respect to the environment, we have embarked on a major research exercise – the Harbour Management Project. 

 

The aim is to better understand the dynamics of our coastal and harbour environment, how they might be affected by the twin threats a more volatile climate and more intensive development; and what the impacts might be on the quality of the harbour, on biodiversity, and on the community.

 

Harbour Management Project

This is undoubtably the most important project in Mangawhai to ensure our future.

Through this project we are bringing together all parties responsible for managing the harbour, the catchment, and the environment.  Our goal is to ensure this is done by sound scientific research.

We’ve set ourselves a challenge aligning and gaining commitment of the key stakeholders

DOC, KDC, NRC and mana whenua.  Time will tell on this one.

 

Central to the project is ensuring a healthy and functioning harbour.

Currently there is no integrated holistic approach to managing our harbour and only 200k is spent per year mostly on dredging on its physical health.

Hence the project we began last year

It is an expensive exercise, and we’ve spent or committed 130k so far and need about another $120k to finish – quite a challenge to fund from donations and grants

The project has several stages

Stage 1 – physical threats, spit, inundation and sedimentation. Also, drivers of the economy

Cost was 50k raised by the community. Thank you to those who donated

Stage 1 is completed and is on our website

Stage 1 sets up stage 2

This involves modelling and understanding the impact of inundation – from the sea, flooding from rain, a sedimentation study and mapping the spit.

Stage 2 consists of 6 studies. Some are underway, some need to be funded

Firstly, those studies driving the physical impacts

Harbour sedimentation and contamination – report done by Niwa, funded by a NRC grant $40,000

Spit morphology – by UoA, funded by the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration Society $40,000

Inundation – Report to be done by NIWA, $20,000 yet to be funded. This is an essential study as it drives everything else. Funding was turned down by the KDC – very shortsighted

Secondly, those studies looking at the impacts

Cultural – what is the impact on cultural assets, yet to be funded

Habitat – impact on biodiversity in the harbour, yet to be funded

Economic – post covid update of economic value at stake, completed, funded by MCOST $5,000

Then we will integrate all the reports to arrive at a set of coordinated mitigating actions.

The goal is to get all stakeholders to sign up to an integrated plan. A key mechanism is having them all on the projects steering committee. It is, we recognise, a lofty goal and the value is likely to come from using the outcomes to push them into action.

We would like to give a big thanks to the donors to the stage 1 study, MCOST, the NRC and MHRS. 

Still a lot of work to be done here.

 

I would like to give a huge Thank You to the MM committee, you can see how they passionate about what the Society is doing by the tireless work they are doing on these issues.

Lastly a big thanks to everyone here today, your support continues to give us motivation and without it we would be unable to exist.


Thank You,

Doug Lloyd - Chairman

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