Ōrākei Local Board Open Space Network Plan September 2019 1 Cover image – view over a section of the Pourewa Creek (source, Flickr). 2 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SECTION 1 - THE ŌRĀKEI OPEN SPACE NETWORK ................................................................................... Section 1 introduces the Ōrākei local board area and investigates the current state of the open space network plan. 1.1 Purpose of the network plan ............................................................................................. 5 1.2 Ōrākei Local Board area ................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Strategic context ............................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Current state ..................................................................................................................... 8 Treasure .................................................................................................................. 8 Enjoy ..................................................................................................................... 16 Connect ................................................................................................................. 22 Utilise ..................................................................................................................... 23 SECTION 2 – KEY MOVES ................................................................................................................................ Section 2 identifies the key moves required to improve the Ōrākei open space network over the next 10 years. 2.1 Protecting and enhancing the natural environment .................................................. 2.2 Recognising our culture and heritage ....................................................................... 2.3 Encouring activation ................................................................................................. 2.4 Improving connectivity .............................................................................................. 2.5 Retaining and acquiring open space in response to growth ..................................... SECTION 3 – PRIORITISATION OF ACTIONS ................................................................... Section 3 orders the key moves from Section 2 into a prioritised list of actions for individual parks. 3.1 Prioritisation principles ....................................................................................... 3.2 Ōrākei Local Board advocacy ................................................................... 3.3 Actions .................................................................................................................36 High priority actions ...................................................................................36 Prioritised actions ......................................................................................39 3 Executive Summary Auckland is experiencing significant growth, which is leading to competing demands for land. As population levels have increased, so has the need for new infrastructure such as housing, schools, hospitals, roads including areas for commercial and recreation activity to cater for growing communities. Land is a finite resource with limited supply and increasing demand. The high cost of land will continue to rise. This is particularly evident in well-established older suburbs of Auckland. The Auckland Unitary Plan allows for residential intensification within some suburbs in the Ōrākei Local Board area. Residential growth in these areas will manifest predominantely through town house and apartment building and mixed-use developments, which typically have limited outdoor space. This will place addtional pressure on the existing network of parks. The Ōrākei Open Space Network Plan sets out how the local board can develop their open space network over the next 10 years to provide for the recreational needs of their local communties. With limited opportunity to acquire land for new parks, a combination of measures focused on improving the existing open space network will focus on: • identifying the areas with gaps in open space provision • identifying open space that has limited potential to deliver recreational and ecological outcomes • improving connectivity within the existing open space network • improving the spatial arrangement and developed quality of existing parks • investigating opportunties to re-purpose or for shared-use of other public and private open space land. 4 5 6 Section 1 - The Ōrākei Open Space Network INTRODUCTION in order to meet the open space needs of the increasingly diverse and intensifying communities The Ōrākei Open Space Network Plan has three of the Ōrākei Local Board area. sections. Network Plan implementation Section one discusses the purpose of the plan, its Actions recommended in this plan include strategic alignment with council policy and the operational activities, developing new assets, current state of the Ōrākei Local Board open acquiring new parks, planning asset renewals, space network. working with community groups and promoting Section two sets out the key moves to improve the recreational opportunities. open space network and provides a framework for Some of these projects are ready for prioritising funding for development over the next implementation, while others require feasibility 10 years. assessments and further planning. Section three lists the prioritised actions by suburb for individual parks. The Customer and Community Services Department, Infrastructure and Environmental Services Department and Auckland Transport will implement the network plan. 1.2 ŌRĀKEI LOCAL BOARD AREA The area is located on the north-east of the Auckland isthmus with coastal frontages to the Waitematā Harbour, Hauraki Gulf and Tāmaki River. The area includes the suburbs of Remuera, a portion of Parnell, Ellerslie, Meadowbank, Ōrākei, Mission Bay, Kohimarama, St Heliers, Glendowie, St Johns and Stonefields. Fig. 3: the volcanic tuff-ring explosion crater Ōrākei [Hayward et al; Auckland University Press, 2011]. Fig. 2: Location map of the Ōrākei local board area. The suburb of Ōrākei and its local board take their 1.1 PURPOSE OF THE NETWORK PLAN name from the volcanic tuff-ring explosion crater Ōrākei, which is at the head of the Pourewa The open space network plan will assist Auckland Valley. Ōrākei, ‘place of beautifying’ to Māori, is Council to prioritise its spending for parks and one of 48 volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic open space development by identifying projects field. It is essentially a 700metre-wide explosion for prioritisation through the local board, long-term crater, with a surrounding tuff-ring. After its and annual plan processes. eruptions ceased about 85,000 years ago, the The plan provides a range of actions to improve crater evolved to a freshwater lake that had an the provision and developed quality of local parks 7 overflow stream in the vicinity of the present-day areas’ suburbs. A recent exception to this is the Ōrākei Rd bridge. Stonefields residential development. As the sea level rose after the end of the last Ice The Stonefields development commenced at the Age, the lake, which by then had shallowed to a beginning of the new millennium. It is the first of a swamp, was breached by the sea and has been a tranche of high-density housing developments Fig. 4: Suburbs within the Ōrākei Local Board area tidal lagoon ever since. Today, it is a popular built upon the principles of ‘new urbanism’. recreation destination for water sports in Parks and open spaces particular. A railway line was built on top of a The Ōrākei Local Board area has one tūpuna causeway which effectively dammed the northern maunga and 112 local parks, which includes 95 side of the basin. This has contributed to heavy neighbourhood parks, 14 suburb parks and three sedimentation and poor water quality in the esplanade reserves. lagoon Many parks across the Auckland area have During the early colonial period much of the land underlying ownership held by the Crown but are outside the city centre was grazed as large managed in perpetuity by Auckland Council. blocks. The eastern suburbs of the Auckland isthmus were settled well after the suburbs Other significant tracts of open space in the located closer to Queen Street, such as Ōrākei Local Board area, such as the Ellerslie Ponsonby, Freemans Bay, Newton and Parnell. Racecourse and Whenua Rangatira, are owned by others in trust but managed for the access and This later period of settlement led to relatively enjoyment of all Aucklanders. lower density housing characterising many of the 8 1.3 STRATEGIC CONTEXT The focus areas are: At a local level, the Ōrākei Open Space Network Treasure our parks and open spaces Plan contributes towards implementing the Connect our parks and open spaces strategic direction of the Auckland Plan 2050 and the Parks and Open Spaces Strategic Action Plan Utilise our parks and open spaces 2013. Enjoy our parks and open space The Parks and Open Space Strategic Action Plan identifies four areas of focus. These focus areas are the basis of how open space is valued, used and developed. They provide pathways required to achieve the outcomes identified in the Auckland Plan. Fig. 5: Strategic context flow chart. 9 1.4 CURRENT STATE The following three photographs illustrate the evolution of the Te Pane o Horoiwi over the last The following