Blueprint on track with sustainable future-proofing

22 June 2010

The Coromandel Peninsula Blueprint remains on track as the project’s four agencies* advance the district’s major collaborative planning exercise.

Launched in 2006, the Blueprint project set out to create a long-term growth and development strategy – a sustainable framework for the district’s future, identifying the services and infrastructure required while protecting the environment.

Consistency and cost savings are expected to result from the integrated approach during a busy 2010 work programme, the focus of which is the Local Area Blueprints [LABs] phase. This is when the community’s views and technical information are gathered and blended to create detailed plans of how seven catchments and their local growth / settlement areas, might look in 50 years’ time.

Originally scheduled to take three years, it was decided to fast-track the LABs phase into a single year, the results of which will have positive, cost-saving spin-offs for other important planning programmes.

Much of the LABs work, including community consultation, will help Thames-Coromandel District Council to gather information needed to review its District Plan – a major project which formally begins next year.

Other documents including regional and operational plans will also be influenced by the fruits of the Blueprint labours. This ensures the most efficient use of planning resources and funding – standardising processes, minimising red tape and costs to the community.

While the project website – www.coroblueprint.govt.nz – offers the most comprehensive summary of progress, here’s a brief summary of recent highlights:

• Hundreds of people around the peninsula attended public meetings and hui in April and May to learn more about the project and to share their views, their concerns and hopes for the future of the Coromandel/Te Tara o Te Ika a Maui.

o Thank you to everyone who took the time to come along for their input is an essential part of the ‘inquiry by design’ process.

• With further community feedback on record, attention turned to the ‘natural area process’ phase during which technical experts took a close look at natural hazards, risk to life, biodiversity values and threats, and the way in which we interact with them.

o Staff gathered information on the peninsula’s special landscape and waters in a comprehensive study of our environment – from the mountains to the sea.

o During a series of workshops, historical records and the latest mapping technology were used to create an accurate picture of our environment and a better understanding of the threats – natural and man-made – which could harm it.

• In early June, the ‘local area working studies’ phase brought together all the information from the two previous stages – community consultation and the natural area process .

o The four-day workshops were facilitated by experienced consultants, Urbanism+, whose technical experts have used the “inquiry by design’ process in many similar assignments for cities and districts throughout NZ.

o The outcomes were initial visual representations of how each of the three main urban hubs [Thames, Whitianga and Whangamata] and secondary settlements across the peninsula might develop.
o
ENDS

© Scoop Media