Waiheke Local Board Meeting Held on 27/09/2018
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Chair’s report: Waiheke Local Board Month to 18 Sept 2018 Ngā mihi Waiheke Te Korowai O Waiheke (previously Predator Free Waiheke) The coalition of most of Waiheke’s predator control groups has been so successful that the group, has now secured approximately $11m of Government, Council and Foundation North funding to support their ambitions and plans to make Waiheke predator-free by 2025. The local board has supported the build of this coalition of community groups and congratulated them and the new trust board that will oversee the project at the launch of the campaign on Sunday 16 September at a hui hosted by Piritahi Marae. Piritahi Marae and Auckland Council officers led by Deryn Dromgoole (Waiheke’s resident biosecurity officer), are to be commended as are the High Schools’ Kapa Haka group and hospitality students for hosting such a large and future-focussed ceremony and celebration. The grant funds now provide the opportunity to rebuild the health of many of Waiheke’s natural ecosystems which have been significantly depleted and which are under further serious threat. Youth mini-conference On Saturday 15 September the island’s youth representatives, Youth Voice, collaborating with Doris Aoine and Rozanne Gold of the Rock hosted their own highly successful mini-conference, designed to bring young people together to help capture their aspirations and ideas for the islands youth. The outcomes from this mini-conference will themselves feed into the business case being developed to establish a permanent youth centre on the island. Auckland Transport The board has had two important meetings on Waiheke with Auckland Transport in recent weeks. On 17 August Shane Ellison, Chief Executive of Auckland Transport met for a comprehensive review of all matters of concern to the board. Issues covered ranged from road maintenance schedules, Matiatia’s redevelopment, progress on footpaths and cycleways, road safety, ferry issues, through to the dangerous state of the loop road at the eastern end. Council’s survey of Waiheke residents’ perception of AT performance in recent years was discussed as well as the board’s desire to establish a 10-year strategy for Waiheke with AT. Shane Ellison committed to the co-creation of a new Waiheke Local Board /AT relationship and a co-design approach for the future prioritisation of projects. To advance that the board will work with AT in a second workshop to hammer out our shared agenda. On 6 September we met with Auckland Transport’s senior planners from their cycling and walking teams. It was disappointing to learn that cycling has no unallocated budget to support Waiheke’s cycling infrastructure development in the next ten years, and that therefore the board must advocate clearly for alternative means of potentially securing funding for critical cycling infrastructure required for safety on key roadways as those come up for redevelopment (eg Matiatia). The planner for footpaths was more encouraging and we will be working with that team to progress Waiheke priorities. In both cases getting our children and youth safely to school is our first priority. Matiatia The board has now successfully negotiated to resecure the front of the rental car area for public parking, which currently provides approximately 35 more carparks free of charge until such time as Auckland Transport installs a parking machine. Meanwhile Community Facilities is taking over responsibility for the management of the Harbourmasters Building and will shortly complete a condition assessment of the building so the board can evaluate the options for use of that site going forward once current leases expire. Accommodation Providers Targeted Rates (APTR) Online providers are working towards a public meeting involving Council representatives in early October to raise their issues regarding the recent introduction and impacts of both commercial rates and the APTR for Waiheke accommodation providers. They have the advantage of having both the visitor data as well as several hundred Waiheke accommodation homes on their host lists so should be able to provide a great deal of informed data for the meeting. The board has by comparison no detailed information about the impacts as these are held by individual ratepayers and accommodation providers. Housing Strategy The board is working with officers or develop a housing strategy, an initiative pre-figured by the Local Board Plan. The plan itself will be tightly constrained by the board’s role and resources, and the limits of its potential influence so depends on defining those matters where the board can add value. One of those is advocacy and in that capacity the board will submit through Auckland Council to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s reform of the Residential Tenancies Act 1986. Deadlines for such feedback is always tight and precludes the board going to public consultation. However, individuals and organisations can submit direct to MBIE. Project Forever Waiheke Attached is Project Forever Waiheke’s report on the community consultation undertaken in February/March this year. nāku noa Cath Handley Chair ‘Forever Waiheke’ Community views on tourism and development on Waiheke Island 2018 Compiled by Project Forever Waiheke July 2018 Project Forever Waiheke Community Consultation Report July 2018 Table of contents Section I – Community consultation purposes and processes 1 A. Background to community concerns and wishes for Waiheke 2 B. The 2018 community consultation 3 C. Consultation processes 4 1. Community workshop 5 2. Community survey 5 Section II – Findings 7 A. Perceived benefits of tourism for Waiheke 8 1. Impacts of tourism on the island generally 8 2. Impacts of tourism on residents personally 8 B. Residents’ satisfaction with recent development/s on Waiheke 11 1. Main patterns 2. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction with development/s 11 12 C. Urgent action priorities 20 1. Survey respondents’ priorities 20 2. Workshop participants’ priorities, and suggested solutions 21 3. Summary - Why these priorities? 26 4. Recommended urgent actions 26 Section III – Conclusions and direction 30 A. What has changed since 2015-6? 31 B. Where to now? 33 1. Developing sustainable community tourism strategy 33 2. A starting point 33 List of figures Figure 1: 2016 priorities – ‘What we love about Waiheke’ 2 Figure 2: 2016 community concerns 3 Figure 3: Urgent action priorities 20 Figure 4: 2018 main community concerns 31 Figure 5: Draft sustainable community tourism for Waiheke Island 35 Figure 6: Respondent residence 36 Figure 7: Years resident on Waiheke Island 36 Figure 8: Respondent home ownership 37 i Project Forever Waiheke Community Consultation Report July 2018 List of figures (cont) Figure 9: Residents renting homes to tourists 37 Figure 10: Perceived impacts of tourism for Waiheke Island generally 38 Figure 11: Perceived impacts of tourism for residents personally 39 List of tables Table 1: Perceived tourism impacts on the island generally 8 Table 2. Impacts of tourism on residents personally 8 Table 3: Level of satisfaction with recent development on Waiheke 12 Table 4: Priority issues and solutions identified in the community 22 workshop Acknowledgements The Project Forever Waiheke Local Working Group expresses its heartfelt thanks to the community members who gave their input into the community consultation through the workshop and survey for their valuable contributions, the Waiheke Island Local Board for providing essential funding for the Project, mātua George Kahi for supporting the consultation in many vital ways, Auckland Council for making the Surfdale Hall available at no cost, and our partners in the University of Otago Department of Tourism for academic support. ii Project Forever Waiheke Community Consultation Report July 2018 Section I – Community consultation purposes and processes This Section describes the establishment of Project Forever Waiheke, summarises why the community consultation was undertaken and how, outlines its alignment with previous community consultations on Waiheke Island development and community vision, and describes the community stakeholder survey and workshop undertaken. 1 Project Forever Waiheke Community Consultation Report July 2018 A. Background to community concerns and wishes for Waiheke In 2015, a ‘refresh’ consultation was undertaken by the Waiheke Island Local Board with the Waiheke community, to build on earlier community consultations to identify the wishes and concerns of the local community in relation to the island. The consultation report, Essentially Waiheke 2016 ‘Refresh’, summarised the background and key findings of the consultation as follows (excerpted from that report, pp 9-12): “Back in 1997, the community of Waiheke Island came together to ‘produce a strategy that would provide a framework for development of the island over the next 20-30 years’. Their views, captured over 3 years via community workshops, are articulated in the document ‘Essentially Waiheke - a village and rural communities strategy’ (2000, 2005). The document was then commissioned and adopted by Auckland Council (2000) aiming at informing council and regional planning staff. As part of an original agreement of being revised every 5 years, the document had its first (and so far last) revision (with no community consultation) in 2005. Almost 20 years later, the document still has its relevance and respect, and some recognition in sectors of the community. Within Council and CCOs it is still referred as the ‘go to’ document for Waiheke Island. … What is the Waiheke character? In our everyday speech we refer to character of place. … The Waiheke character is connected to the essence of the island as an entity, to its natural life principle or mauri – which is an essential source of emotions, clearly embodied by residents and visitors alike… Waiheke’s coastline and beaches, native bush cover, informal villages and low-density residential areas all contribute to the island’s strong sense of character. People here have a strong connection to the land and this relationship is expressed through the many community initiatives. Most locals not only live on Waiheke but also for Waiheke.