Strategy shapes Whangarei District's growth for decades to come

The Sustainable Futures 30/50 Growth Strategy is the culmination of more than two years' work by councillors and staff and is a comprehensive assessment of the most sustainable growth patterns to maintain Whangarei District as an attractive and affordable place to live, work and play.

Council CEO Mark Simpson said the adoption of the Growth Strategy was a defining moment for Council in identifying the growth patterns which will best protect Whangarei District's high amenity of urban environments and maintain its natural environment.

"Projections are that by 2060 our District will be home to a further 55,000 people, and it is essential to the future quality of life within the District that this growth is managed in a sustainable way.

"Council has developed a spatial plan which defines where growth should occur to preserve the District's amenity values and its fertile soils and environment.

"It is interesting to note that the Auckland Super City legislation demands that a spatial plan be developed for Auckland, so we in Whangarei are ahead of the game in adopting our Growth Strategy," Mr Simpson said.

The Growth Strategy was structured using a sustainable development approach, seeking sustainable economy, environment, society and culture.

Alternative futures for the District were examined and went out for public consultation, leading to the comprehensive examination of the preferred development path for the District over the next three to five decades.

The Growth Strategy adopted protects Whangarei City as the primary urban centre with a strong and enduring CBD, views the Marsden Point/Ruakaka area as a satellite town which complements Whangarei City, identifies rural and coastal growth nodes and villages.

Mr Simpson said the Growth Strategy was one of the most important documents Whangarei District Council had ever produced.

"It lays the foundation for growth which will allow the District to maintain the features which make it such an attractive place to live, work and play, and identifies where that growth will contribute most socially, culturally and economically to our increasing population and protect the environment that makes Whangarei such an attractive place.

"It is vital in enabling this Council to plan infrastructural spending in a timely and cost-effective way, and it will enable Council to win the District's share of national resources needed to cater for growth and the economic benefits which go with it.

"Already the Board of the New Zealand Transport Agency has indicated its support for a spatial planning approach to aligning Government and local government infrastructural spending, and the completion of the Growth Strategy will be of huge benefit in gaining funding.

"Future Councils can now overlay their vision for the social amenities the District will need, and plan with certainty for the infrastructure which will support those amenities," he said.

Mr Simpson paid tribute to the project team which led the research and produced the Growth Strategy.

He said they had produced a first class assessment of the shape of future growth which will preserve the District's character and meet the expectations of its citizens for generations to come.

The background reports on which the strategy is founded will remain available on Council's website for any further studies to be undertaken.

The next step for Council is to prepare a plan for the implementation and funding of the Growth Strategy.

The Growth Strategy will be printed and available by mid-October, and will be on Council's website.