More tarmac?

I’m glad we’re not getting another Pauanui at Ocean Beach. The initial plans from the design company DPZ Pacific are admirable in their attempt to create a living community, rather than dead rows of houses along cul-de-sacs without shops or services.

Good on everyone involved- this is a radical move for what have historically been change-averse local politicians, planners and developers. But despite benevolent intentions and the slick speak of designers at the recent Charrette process, I’m still not convinced that building houses at Ocean Beach is a good idea.

Although proclaiming to be anti-sprawl and a positive alternative to the soulless suburbia that we are all so familiar with, the fact remains that this is still greenfields development. And it’s not just development on any old green field, but a construction site on what has repeatedly been referred to as an extra special place for thousands of local residents.

We must remember that both landowners and the Hastings District Council have vested interests in promoting this type of development on unsettled land. The landowners sell property and the council collects the extra rates.

There is nothing inevitable about coastal development. It is the result of conscious decision-making and regulation by our local government. If the community were sufficiently motivated, and demanded it, Ocean Beach could be ecologically restored without any type of settlement.

We must carefully consider whether to further increase and scatter Hawkes Bay’s already ridiculously sized urban footprint. Building more car-dependant and isolated villages seems especially irrational at a time when oil prices look to be increasing indefinitely.

What’s needed is a concentration of people and business within our existing communities. Both Napier and Hastings could do with a good dose of DPZ’s new urbanism to revitalize the dull suburbs built by well intentioned planners in the fifties and sixties. We should focus on reinvigorating the urban spaces we already have- not covering more grass with tarmac.