one of several big kauri trees

In its early propaganda from 2014, the Maypole company, which is creating the huge subdivisions on the north-west side of the ‘Ewy’ in the beach zone, so described its development intentions.

One of the gardens on the Lions Karori Garden Trail last weekend was Futuna, off Friend Street, which comprises 66 semi-detached townhouses and a large common area with facilities run by a homeowners association.

Some readers may remember when Futuna was a retreat owned and run by the Catholic Church.  The land was sold in the early 2000s and existing structures demolished. The iconic chapel is now owned by a trust.

In the U.S., retirement villages of the ‘Licence to Occupy’ type owned by property businesses are not part of the scene (and what we call Rest Homes are known there as Nursing Homes).

Instead these types of homeowners association or HOA arrangement are common, and not just for retirees: if you’re buying a condominium, townhouse, or freestanding home in a neighbourhood with shared common areas — such as a swimming pool, tennis court, community centre, walking trails, sports courts and playing fields reserved for residents, parking garage, or even just the security gates and sidewalks in front of each residence — odds are these areas are maintained by an HOA.  It’s estimated that nearly 25% of Americans now live in one of these set-ups.

The common areas and amenities are maintained by an elected committee of the HOA and owners have to pay a monthly or quarterly fee for it.

The big differences from the NZ-style retirement village is that the people own their homes, and don’t effectively rent them. If there’s a capital gain on sale, they get it, not the property business. Furthermore, they won’t be paying for some full-time manager’s bloated salary, fees for external directors and so on.

The disadvantage is that there are likely to be tough rules about what owners can and can not do regarding all aspects of external appearance, where you can park vehicles, and maybe internal alterations.

Some subdivisions, however, can also have restrictive covenants applying to them.  We know that the Ferndale subdivision in Waikanae, for example, has.

Whether the Maypole company intends some or most of its massive developments to consist of this type of arrangement, we know not.  However, that seems probable from the many drawings of 3-story condominium blocks it has made public.

In Auckland this week, for a Special Feature entitled “All Day I Dream in Gardens” (the above pic shows his Gold Medal design at the Ellerslie Flower Show in 2013) — details

Last night’s WCB meeting heard from a representative of a group of residents in Field Way and the surrounding streets about their desire for an emergency access track into the Golf Course land at the end of Hodgkins Road in the event of a tsunami.

They said the 13th hole on the Golf Course is quite high and water from a tsunami would be unlikely to get higher than that.

Although the Golf Club is in agreement, it didn’t want to contribute to the cost.  Being only a foot track that is wanted, it wasn’t clear what costs would actually be involved, and is something that presumably the local residents could jointly contribute to.

click for big versions showing the power cables.

Last night’s Community Board meeting had a presentation by Dean Scott of this state-owned enterprise on this topic.

In essence, trees cannot come within 4 metres of high voltage power lines — those that go across Waikanae Park are 220 kV — or there is a risk of flashover.  At 5 metres from the lines, Transpower will issue trimming notices to tree owners.

The trees in Waikanae Park are, of course, owned by the council. Transpower says it will pay for this work itself, restore ground that may get chewed up by its heavy machinery and replace felled trees with new plantings.

There are the big issues, however, of visual appeal, bird life, and the fostering of native trees species.

Mr Scott said that there are limits to the number of times that trees can be topped before their shape is ruined, and we know from our experience that it encourages sideways growth.  The natural shape of a tree is what makes its beauty.

They expect to do 1,000 sq metres (a quarter acre) of tree felling a year.

WCB member Tonchi Begovich was unhappy with spoiling the landscape by chopping down trees and asked whether Transpower had looked at raising the heights of the pylons instead.  Yes, they had, but that would cost more and wasn’t in their budget. And if they did this for Kapiti people it would set a precedent for having to do it everywhere.

The pictures above taken this morning show the area where the powerlines cross the park and at least some of the trees likely to be affected.

There are some redwoods in the area concerned apparently, although we only saw macrocarpa.

If the power lines had been buried below ground, as many agitated for when the Ewy was being built, the issue wouldn’t exist. But that is not going to happen now.

Yes folks, it’s now only four weeks to Christmas!

What we know is happening at present:

Every Saturday morning: 7:30 am–12:30 pm. Farmers Market in Park Avenue.

Saturday 16 December in Mahara Place: Christmas carols,  Brasso and the Ukes of Wellington(!) and Santa: 10:00 am–2:00 pm.

Monday 18 December–Saturday 23 December, 10:00 am–4:00 pm: Inflatable Castles at El Rancho (for children)

Wednesday 6, 13 and 20 December: 9:30 am–-10:45 am: Yoga with Elise in the Waikanae Memorial Hall

Plus most clubs and societies are sure to be having a Christmas shindig — don’t drink and drive.

130,000 hectares of vegetation, including trees, has been lost to the construction of Stage 3 of WestConnex along the 7.5-kilometre tunnels between Haberfield & St Peters. Sydney Park took a severe battering losing more then 500 trees. In 2016 Roads & Maritine Services said that they would plant 3,500 replacement trees of a minimum pot […]

via WestConnex reneges on tree replacements — SAVING OUR TREES – Marrickville municipality

Media release from the KCDC

The results from the Council’s latest household waste survey show that almost half of the household waste Kāpiti residents put out for collection each week could be recycled, composted, or reused.

The survey, which took place in September, involved collecting and sorting through the contents of 280 rubbish bags and wheelie bins from across the district. Solid waste dropped off at the Otaihanga and Ōtaki transfer stations was also surveyed.

Solid Waste Manager Glen O’Connor says the survey shows that there is enormous potential to reduce the amount of waste that is put out for kerbside collection and sent to transfer stations for disposal in Kāpiti.

“Residential wheelie bins and bags sorted during the waste survey contained more than 50 percent recyclable and compostable waste on average, with some of the larger wheelie bins containing up to two thirds of recyclable and compostable waste.

“There is huge potential for our residents to save money and the environment by composting their kitchen and garden waste and recycling material such as paper, plastics, metals and glass,” said Mr O’Connor.

“Switching from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collection, or changing to a smaller bin size, will save Kāpiti households money while reducing waste” he said. “Composting kitchen and green waste will also help to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.”

The Council recently adopted the Wellington Region Waste Management and Minimisation Plan which aims to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill per capita by 33 percent within the next nine years. Waste surveys are conducted every three to four years, and help the Council identify trends and plan effective measures to achieve the waste reduction target.

Councillor Jackie Elliott, who is the Kāpiti representative on the Regional Waste Management Forum, says the 2017 survey shows that the total amount of waste per capita sent to landfill from Kāpiti has increased since 2013 so the district has some way to go to meet its reduction target.

“We all have a role to play in meeting this target and we’ll need help from our residents, the commercial sector, and other Councils in the region to get there,” said Councillor Elliott.

The Council supports a range of programmes to encourage residents to reduce waste and increase composting, such as the national Love Food Hate Waste campaign and free workshops on different composting methods.

Information on what can and can’t be recycled in Kāpiti and waste reduction and education initiatives can be found on the Council’s website here

This is present in the Round Up product, among others.

via Massive Citizen Initiative Demands Ban of Monsanto’s Glyphosate in All 50 States

Yesterday we did the Karori Lions Garden Trail, which included Zealandia, the Karori equivalent of Nga Manu, although covering a much bigger and hillier area.

This display in it shows how high different animals can jump. We’ve long known that cats can jump 1.8 metres (6 ft), but the others are a surprise.

Zealandia has a fence right around the perimeter designed to keep all these out.