Omaha Beach - Planning

2007 Annual Planning Forum - Minutes (November 2007)

Minutes of the Annual Planning Forum held in the Omaha Beach Community Centre on Saturday 10th November 2007 commencing at 4.00 pm

Present

Greg Stenbeck, president of the OBC; John Key, leader of the National Party; Penny Webster, Mayor Rodney District Council; John Kirikiri, Deputy Mayor, RDC; RDC northern ward councillors Graeme Powell, June Turner & Dave Parker; Senior sergeant Phil Paratene, Orewa police deputy commander, Bede Haughey, Officer in Charge, Warkworth Police, Warren McLennan RDC Director of Strategy & Planning & approximately 220 members.

Greg Stenbeck welcomed all present to the meeting & thanked them for making the effort to attend. He introduced the RDC representatives starting with the newly elected Mayor, a particular friend of the association for some years, & the councillor's two of whom were new RDC representatives.

Mayor & Councillors

Mayor Webster noted that the make up of the RDC council had changed significantly with 7 new councillors & a new mayor. She believed the RDC had been held back by the attitude of the previous Council & that as a result staff had become protective. She intended that attitudes would change. She paid tribute to the work of the OBC committee for their positive attitude & determination to see projects completed.
Councillors' Parker, Turner & Powell spoke briefly to the meeting providing a little personal background.

Planning Forum 2007 Objectives

Greg Stenbeck ran through the objectives decided at the previous planning session & reported on progress to this date.

Broadlands Drive Bridge extension
Work had finally started on this project & would be completed in February 2008. It had been expected that the footpath would be completed for the 2007/8 holiday period & the project had been agreed & consented in sufficient time to do this. Unfortunately the initial tenders were so significantly higher than expected that the start date had been delayed until this had been resolved. The final price agreed was now much in line with the original expectations. This delay & the fact that a pile driving barge would have to be used meant the main progamme could not start until the new year.

Tonkin & Taylor Inundation Report
Members would remember the history of this exercise dating back to July 2005 which had originally resulted in RDC intending to issue a LIM warning to some 250 properties at Omaha of a possible flood warning in extreme weather conditions.
As a result of strenuous objections & the preparation of meticulous reports on actual height levels for Omaha properties the so called "blue line" which the council had drawn up to represent the possible flood level had been significantly reduced & might now only affect a handful (under20) of the total number of properties (none in the Southern end). During the last major storm during which conditions were certainly close to the worst scenario envisaged in Tonkin Taylor there had been no breach of the dunes & no flooding. This had given further credence to our approach.

Omaha Park Development
The application for a change in zoning has been rejected by the Council & this decision had been appealed. No attempt has been made by the developers to limit or reduce the original plan which includes a hotel complex and some 800+ residential properties. The principal access would almost certainly be via Mangatawhiri Road & the project would have a significant effect on the Omaha resources & the infrastructure principally roading & community services in the area.

Xmas/New Year Security Patrols
As a result of positive feedback from members an extended security patrol over the December January provided by Insite & paid for by OBC by means of a $20 security levy added to the membership subscription would commence in the 2007/8 holiday period.

Change of Name to "Omaha Beach"
A change of name for our community to Omaha Beach [from Omaha] had been supported by the RDC & a formal application lodged with the NZ Geographical Society. Additional information had been requested & the matter would be considered at the next NZGS meeting in May 2008. Discussions had been held with local Iwi who had not formally opposed the change but had expressed reservations.

Trees
City Care had taken over responsibility for the maintenance of the reserves & public areas at Omaha Beach & would be responsible for the annual tree trimming programme Work to date had involved a full survey of the roadside & road centre gardens & a programme to cut back excessive vegetation blocking line of sight for drivers A general tidy up & mulching /shaping had commenced.
Residents wanting to have pruning carried out or with queries about work done or work requested should contact City Care directly via the RDC help desk.

Walkway to Matakana
OBC has made an approach to have the walkway which presently ends at the other side of the causeway extended to reach Matakana. It appears the new Matakana community group has a similar plan to run a walkway from Matakana to the coast.

Bush Walkway.
To run from the road through the bush / foreshore of the southern end. To be taken up with DOC who own this land.

Marina
This project planned for the Eastern shoreline from the café north & involving canal access to properties is not to proceed.

Swimming Diving pontoon
Not to proceed because of safety issues.

Village Green
Suggested by RDC officers on the clear area of grass adjacent to the golf club work sheds. A long term proposal.

Street Lighting
Problems reported with maintenance in the past. Resident to call the RDC helpline to report faults. Prompt action was promised by the councilors.

Storm water rates.
Residents are charged a levy for storm water services in the annual rates bill. Storm water services are not provided at Omaha. The levy has increased significantly in recent years & OBC are to raise the matter again with RDC to establish on what ground it is fair to charge for a service not being provided.

Toilet Block Southern end
A public toilet has been requested at the southern end. The Golf club would like a facility given there has been no toilet provided on the course. OBC has been involved only in suggesting a location which would cause the minimum effect on views traffic etc for Southern end residents. The matter would now be subject to the normal review process & out of OBC hands.
A show of hands suggested a majority of those present at the meeting in favour of the construction of a toilet block at the southern end.

Power Outage
Power supply to Omaha had been cut for 2 days following the July storm. Steve Mutton from Vector was present at the meeting & spoke about the impact of the storm & the measures put in place by Vector to address future interruptions.
There had been a huge impact with up to 150,000 Vector customers initially losing power. The Omaha supply comes via Wellsford & the route followed by the lines run over some difficult & inaccessible country. This & the number of breaks in the line meant the delay to restoration of power was considerable.
As a result of a review Vector now planned to do the following
For a major interruption where it was anticipated the power might be off for as much as 10 hors a portable generator would be installed at the Community center to allow hot water, some cooking facilities, showers & toilet facilities.
For a break of longer than 10 hours (subject to availability) Vector would bring in & set up generators at both northern & southern end to provide power to the community.
Communication would be improved so that in the event of a failure, residents could be quickly informed as to the nature of the event & the likely disruption time. A group was still working on a solution to this but it was acknowledged that communication had been poor & must be improved.
Graham Painter wanted to acknowledge the highly proactive & positive actions taken by Vector since the storm to address problems that had arisen.

New Matakana Fire Station
This was largely complete & the fire & emergency services would be operating from the station from November. The station would be officially opened in the new year.

2008 action list
The meeting moved on to consider what item should be included/t carried forward to the 2008 year.

Rabbits
Caleci virus had been introduced some time ago but the effects of this were diminishing. In the last year bait stations had been set up in the dunes maintained by volunteers. The work was time consuming & was not addressing the problems of rabbits breeding /living on undeveloped sections.
Essentially rabbit control was an ARC matter & it appeared grants were available from the ARC for rabbit control. OBC would pursue this with the object of obtaining a grant & commissioning service from RDC.
If anyone present thinks they can help please contact the OBC committee.

Footpath Omaha Drive
On the side of the golf course. There is no footpath along Omaha drive from the entry until the Community center. No action from RDC to report.

New Commercial centre [adjacent to Surf Club]
As reported in the newsletter the site to include 4 shops, superette, wine shop, estate agent & one other This development is now consented. The second stage would comprise a restaurant & was presently obtaining resource consent. Neither the shops nor the restaurant were now expected to open before late 2008.

Causeway speed limit
Previously reduced to 80k & with the increase in numbers coming to Omaha( the Southern end is still only 25% built up) the need was to reduce the speed over the causeway still further to recognize the pedestrian use of the walkway & the numbers of people at Omaha at holiday periods & weekends.
OBC will be pressing for the introduction of a 50k limit & to communicate to Transit NZ that contrary to their thinking this is not a rural country community.

Vehicles on walkways/dunes
Problems have been encountered with vehicles on the walkways (golf carts) & accessing the beach over the dunes. RDC had rightly expressed concern over the latter & reminded OBC how vital the dunes are to protect the properties. We will work closely with Insite Security to police this issue. Residents are asked to call Insite or OBC on 0800 66 24 24, to report problems. A section of the fencing along the walkway has been removed on two occasions to allow 4 wheel access over the dunes This is wholly irresponsible.

Holiday Security
Omaha would not be assigned the extra police presence over the holiday period. that it has had in the past. Phil Paratene, Acting DistrictCommissioner of police at Orewa (Regional command) reported that based on past history Omaha had a very low trouble record as compared to other areas in the region particularly Mangawhai (90% of callouts) & extra resources would be based here rather than at Omaha.
There was considerable discussion on the issue & in part this centred on the question as to whether our low level of callouts arose as a result of the additional presence we had been given in the past.
The police were confident that would have sufficient resources in the area as a whole to deal with any issues although they could not give guarantees on call response times. It was hoped the security arrangements now put in place with Insite would keep problems to a minimum.
Sergeant Bede Haughey, Officer in Charge, Warkworth Police, believed he had sufficient resources to cover any situation that arose & the police would work with Insite to ensure the best results.
No statistics were available at the meeting to give some idea of the level of problems reported in the past John Key noted he found it hard to believe that at least one additional constable could not be provided over the holiday period.

Matters to be added to the list
Ron McMahon suggested that nothing be added to the list until outstandings (bridge foot path & seawall repair had been completed. He expressed disappointment at the speed with which projects were completed.
The chairman agreed a feeling of frustration at the time it took to have works completed & that the bridge, & the Seawall were good examples. The position re the bridge had already been explained & he confirmed work had commenced with some drilling for piles & the shifting of the power conduit. The extension piles had been ordered. The seawall was consented & work was scheduled for March next year.
There was nothing further the OBC needed to do for these two projects. Tonkin Taylor had required committee members spending an enormous amount of time dealing with RDC staff but at the end there had been a satisfactory resolution. after overcoming some notable beaurocratic nonsense.
Mayor Webster noted the delays that could be caused by the Resource consent act .It was however evident that there was a considerable depth of feeling at the lack of urgency, the depth of bureaucracy & the failure to see the residents of Omaha Beach or in fact of the Rodney district as entitled to a prompt, effective and expensive service.
OBC had developed a good contact with RDC staff & would seek to maintain this.

Medical services
The need for a better after hours emergency service was raised. The nearest service is presently at Orewa or Wellsford The growing population should be considered. Councillor Powell mentioned that Waitemata Health had been considering establishing an A & E facility in the area & that OBC should follow up with the DHB.

Stop sign Meiklejohn way
Lack of care coming out of Meiklejohn way was noted & a stop sign requested for the corner. OBC to follow up.

Seawall
The seawall would be replaced from the road way to the gabions with a sand cement mix. The existing wall contained asbestos. The gabions themselves would be progressively replaced.

Rubbish
Concern was raised at the volume of rubbish being found at the southern end. Construction sites were the likely cause but once the wind had blown the building paper & other wrappings off site it was impossible to identify the source. It was suggested we ask RDC building inspectors to have regard to site tidiness. This was a requirement of the building consent & clearly needed to be more strictly enforced.

Omaha Park Development
The importance of OBC maintaining a watch on this development & alerting residents & neighboring organisations on the outcome of the appeal (expected to be heard in the first half of 2008) was stressed. Mark Ching (owner of the property overlooking pink beach) gave some background to the developer. If the project was allowed to proceed it would have an immediate & serious impact on the Omaha Beach settlement by placing a considerable extra load on infrastructure, particularly road access. It would ultimately almost double the volume of traffic across the causeway.

Boat ramp
Concern was expressed at the demand now being placed on the Omaha boat ramp & in particular the lack of room to park cars & trailers. The position would worsen over the summer & it was acknowledged that the ramp was used by a much wider community than Omaha residents. It was suggested the committee discuss alternatives with the council.

This session concluded at 5.30.pm & was followed by an address by John Key.