Kia ora tātou
Today I have posted some material on the Waikanae Beach Forum – www.waikanaebeachforum.org – relating to the community drop-in session on access and transport issues held on 29 November. It summarises the feedback received from community members who participated and also includes the material on the modelling of traffic flows which has been done for Waikanae Beach showing the projected changes as a result of the expressway opening and the Ngarara development.
In addition to this material, there is a post from resident Jo Poole which also addresses traffic issues, including the impacts of the Ngarara development. It would be good to get other people’s views on the points she makes.
I’m sure most of you are busy thinking about festivities and holidays as we are. We are aiming to have some preliminary ideas about options for responding to the issues you have raised ready for community discussion in February. We hope a number of you will come to the Waitangi Day (6 February) event at Whakarongotai Marae where we will be present to discuss these ideas with you.
Season’s greetings to you all. Sam and I wish you a very happy and safe holiday season.
Alison Lash
Senior Advisor
Kaitohutohu Matua
Tel 04 296 4786
Mobile 027 452 7425
**************************************************
Thank you to the Council for providing what have been very informative information sessions on transport and planning.
The biggest surprise for me was as a result of attending the 29 November session on transport, traffic and access. While I’d been aware the completion of the MacKays to Pekapeka section of the expressway would increase traffic volumes on our local roads and at the beach — what hadn’t entered my consciousness was the impact of the subdivision at Ngarara (Maypole company on Smith’s farm) on traffic volumes — and more particularly, Te Moana Road.
As I understand it, if I’m correct, the 1500 units (households) planned for the Maypole subdivision, once built, would result in an additional 1000 vehicles spilling out of the subdivision onto Te Moana Road [In fact, the figures reproduced in the post of 29 November have the Maypole company subdivisions adding 1500 vehicles a day in this area — Ed].
I’m not sure how many people have registered this — but as most of the conversations I’ve heard have been centred on the impact of Pekapeka traffic driving to/from Waikanae Beach to access the expressway — (minimal impact compared with the Maypole subdivision), I don’t think it has!
Then of course there’s the impact of additional vehicles from the planned Waikanae North subdivision driving through Waikanae, Park Road etc to access the expressway.
Obviously this additional traffic volume — not taking into account the extra traffic generated by the close proximity of the expressway and access to the beach — WILL have an impact on the character of Waikanae Beach.
We obviously need to do anything we possibly can to help mitigate this additional traffic volume — and start planning for it now!
Can the Council please inform the Waikanae Beach community what options are available for mitigation — and which ones the Council can do and which are up to the community — and what we need to do to make this happen?
Thank you.
Joanna Poole