Takaka will soon have a brand new playground.
The Tasman District Council is preparing ‘‘fun and challenging’’ concept plans for the Takaka Memorial Reserve Playground redevelopment to upgrade the 30-year-old facility.
TDC Reserves Officer Glenn Thorn said he had been taking advice from children at Takaka pre-schools, kindergartens and schools.
‘‘I will also be approaching local craftspeople about providing some of the natural play elements, such as wooden balance beams, seats and maybe some interactive features.’’
The next step was to prepare several concept plans for the children to pick and choose their favourite bits, Thorne said.
Once that feedback was collected, he would present the preferred options to the Golden Bay Community Board on August 9.
Installation is expected to take place by the end of the year.
(The Nelson Mail, Monday, July 18th, 2016)
Nelson’s old fire station will finally have new tenants after being left empty for more than a year.
Aon Insurance will leave its premises on Hardy St to move into the building at the beginning of 2017. Aon Nelson general manager Nicky Roberts said the staff were excited to be moving to a building with such history and character.
The plan for the building is to recreate the art deco architectural heritage to restore the building to its original grandeur.
(The Nelson Mail, Tuesday, July 19th, 2016)
Modern design concepts for the Bett car park site will detract from the area’s charming heritage, a central Nelson resident fears.
Resident of 15 years, Christie Carlson, lives and works on the corner of Nile and Rutherford streets in a dwelling known as Tula & Niles.
But she was now concerned about the direction the street was headed, with the development of Sussex Mews and the recent concept designs for Bett car park, directly across the road from her home.
She said the plans she had seen were out of touch with the style of the remainder of the street.
Bett car park was accepted as a Special Housing Area (SHA) by Nelson City Council last month after developers negotiated to buy the block from the council and build a high-density residential building.
Scott Syndicate released concept design plans for the block after it was approved and gazetted as a SHA by the Minister for Housing.
The concept is for 15 ultramodern residential apartments at a four-storey maximum.
The designs reached the path boundary and include a communal garden area in the middle of the surrounding building.
The images showed wood, steel and glass materials used as part of the design.
The resource consent for the Bett car park SHA development is yet to be submitted before the September 1 deadline.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, July 20th, 2016)
Anxious residents in the small Golden Bay settlement of Pakawau fear the next storm will see part of their properties crumbling into the sea.
Land owners have pleaded with the Tasman District Council (TDC) for four years to help them protect their properties from serious coastal erosion that has eaten away the reserve in front of their homes.
The council has finally agreed to help them build a rock wall or revetment.
However, the increasingly desperate residents are frustrated at the high costs that will come with it.
Pakawau Coastal Residents’ Association (PCRA) president Laurie Jarrett said one Pakawau resident had less than a metre of beach reserve left before the fence separating her property from the beach was taken by the tide.
The estimated cost of protection works was about $250,000, spread between all of the 23 affected properties.
Jarrett said many land owners were pensioners on a tight budget and council was proposing to add about $6000 for each section in administration costs over and above the construction cost.
Council chief executive Lindsay McKenzie sought approval from the council at the full council meeting last month for staff to engage with the residents association.
TDC staff agreed last month to engage with the association “to test whether or not the community has the capacity and desire to fund work”.
It would likely result in a 50 per cent increase in rates.
(The Nelson Mail, Thursday, July 21st, 2016)
Work is underway to install Nelson Airport’s new flight navigation equipment at the end of the runway near Monaco.
Nelson Airport and Airways New Zealand have moved the site of its navigation aid away from the terminal to airport-owned land on Point Rd.
An Airways NZ spokesperson said the relocation operation of a navigation aid at Nelson Airport was on schedule with the build in Monaco almost finalised.
All foundation and structural works were now complete and the installation of antennas and navigation equipment was currently underway.
Airways NZ expected to commence flight testing between August 1-5.
Following regulatory approvals the navigation aid should be in use by November.
Nelson Airport chief executive Rob Evans previously said the location was one of the few places the equipment could go due to technical requirements and land that was able to be developed in the area.
(The Nelson Mail, Thursday, July 21st, 2016)
Spooners Tunnel has been closed until further notice after a survey deemed it too dangerous for the public.
Popular with cyclists and walkers, the tunnel opened three months ago as part of Tasman’s expanding Great Taste Trail.
A routine geotechnical survey of the 125-year-old rail tunnel found cracks that required its immediate closure.
Tasman District Council engineering services manager Peter Thomson said the cracks, found around the tunnel’s northern entrance, indicated movement in the retaining walls.
Spooners Tunnel required constant monitoring because of its age, and it was expected that maintenance work would be needed ’’from time to time’’, he said.
The Tasman District Council was responsible for the cost of maintaining the tunnel.
At 1.4km, Spooners Tunnel is the longest tunnel open to cycling in the Southern Hemisphere and fifth longest in the world.
Since its opening it’s proved popular with recreational cyclists and walkers from within the region, as well as visitors from across New Zealand.
It was hand-built in 1893 for the Glenhope to Nelson railroad, but had been unused since the railway’s closure in 1955.
The tunnel was refitted and opened to the public in April as part of Tasman’s Great Taste Trail, which counted over 200,000 rides in 2015.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, July 22nd, 2016)
Nearly 900 hectares of pristine forest and idyllic coastline have been added to the Kahurangi National Park in the northwest of the South Island.
Nelson MP and Environmental Minister Dr Nick Smith announced the additions to the park on Friday.
The five significant areas were originally left out because of their ownership status, mining permits over them, or being insufficiently investigated, he said.
Smith said there was not a park anywhere in the world that had all the features of Kahurangi.
“With its wild coastlines, stunning estuaries, massive limestone escarpments, snowy mountains, tussock downs, huge river rapids, pure springs and deep caves.
These are the most significant additions to the park since it was established 20 years ago and add to its special character.”
The five additions to Kahurangi National Park are:
204ha west of Pakawau on the southeast of Whanganui Inlet opposite the outlet to the Tasman Sea, an area renowned for being one of New Zealand’s most pristine coastal harbours.
330ha of wild coastal land at Big River, completing the protected status from the mountains to the sea surrounding Kahurangi Point.
68ha of a coastal area known as Harwood Block, south of Kahurangi Point, completing the full protection of the coastal area from Kohaihai to Kahurangi Point.
246ha of inland forest just west of Collingwood, known as West Burnett, surrounded by the Kahurangi National Park, with high-value virgin forest and regionally rare species.
49ha of highland bush adjacent to the Cobb Dam, surrounded by the Kahurangi National Park, known as the Steatite Block.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, July 23rd, 2016)
With property prices soaring and home ownership at its lowest level since the 1950s, local councils are under pressure to give the property market a boost.
They are being encouraged to free-up more land to meet the rising demand.
But some councils have seen this as a way to turn a profit by playing property developer themselves.
Industry experts say councils should not be in the property game, because it creates extra competition, while others see it as an astute move to bolster ratepayer reserves.
Under a proposed government policy statement on urban development capacity, councils would be required to supply more land than demand suggested.
They would have to monitor and respond to data on housing affordability, resource consents, and the value of land on urban boundaries.
Those who did not comply could be challenged in the Environment Court.
A Nelson City Council spokesman said the council carried out subdivision work in the 1990s.
The Walters Bluff Subdivision was a council-only project, intended to encourage growth and development close to the city, while the Ridgeways in Stoke was a joint venture with Homedale Holdings.
‘‘(The council) does not see residential property development as part of its core business,’’ he said.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, July 23rd, 2016)
“I have to trust what I do
and then, I do it”.”
Ednita Nazario