A GOOD DAY FOR TITIRANGI

The Titirangi Ratepayers and Residents Association has been campaigning for some time to have a Local Area Plan for Titirangi Village. The point of the LAP (a new Council planning tool under the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act) is to enable locals to use the Council process to decide what they would like the Village to look like in 50 years time. They can define the heritage characteristics of the area they want to protect and identify what degree of development will be appropriate and where that should take place.

Titirangi’s planning rules are in urgent need of review, having been written to produce an “Alpine Village” look in the 1990s. They are outdated and unsuitable for the current village’s needs and have not delivered the architectural quality that was hoped for.

However the Council had decided they could deliver a new set of planning guidelines for Titirangi without consulting the locals in advance by initiating a District Plan Change and pushing it through before the Super City takes effect.

They didn’t count on the strength of feeling in Titirangi at being left out of the deliberations however and after a great deal of lobbying by members of the Ratepayers Association, local residents and the Titirangi business community, common sense has finally prevailed.

Its been a good day for Titirangi. Although we can't call it a LAP (this is the compromise that Council were prepared to accept), the District Plan Change being prepared for the Village will now include extensive consultation with the community, business & interest groups prior to its drafting.

The provisional date for the public meeting & open day consultation is Nov 3 at the Titirangi War Memorial Hall. Council staff will need to work fast so that the community's views can be incorporated into the policy & notify it by January 2010 if it is to be finalised and signed off by Council before Waitakere joins the Super City and loses its autonomy.

Yesterday's meeting was long and arduous, but in the end there was unanimous support for the following key resolution:
"Agree that in preparing the Economic Wellbeing in the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Plan Change that effect be given to sections 25 and 26 of the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act for Titirangi."

So thanks very much to the Waitakere City Councillors & staff for listening to the community & debating the issues so thoroughly to find a solution.

So the Titirangi Ratepayers and Residents Association invites you to put 3 Nov in you diary as the most important day for Titirangi's future & have a good think about what you would (and wouldn't) like to see our Village look like in 50 years time.


If any groups would like to have a more focused meeting with Council staff on this issue before 3 Nov then please let Mels Barton know asap on 816 8337 or 021 213 7779.