Seriously steeling the green network backbone

by Cimino11 Mar 2019Paths and trails, Warkworth0 comments

Draft Warkworth Structure Plan, Green Network plan

All the Good Open Space: Paraphrasing Rodney and Otamatea Times editor 1914–17 Thomas Roydhouse’s assessment of Mahurangi roads of the day, the “good” open spaces in the structure-plan area are outside the structure-plan area. At a glance, it is difficult to see the protected land here totalling the claimed 62% for the structure plan area. plan Auckland Council | annotation Mahurangi Magazine

Whether the green network proposed in the Draft Warkworth Structure Plan is fit-for-purpose for this week’s climate-striking school students, for their next 30 years, must be the question.

And given that streets, once surveyed, tend to endure, the Warkworth Structure Plan, with its remaining two weeks of consultation, will be shaping Mahurangi tidehead town for centuries hence. Because it has been repeatedly robustly demonstrated that biodiversity benefits from broader corridor width, Warkworth’s governance green network demands to be less apologetic; less vein-like, and more arterial.

The ultimate example of an all-too-narrow buffer is the forest directly across the Mahurangi River from the town centre. At street level, it provides a very effect forest backdrop for the town, but, from many of the Oaks on Neville apartments, the backdrop is revealed as a scarily skimpy curtain. Hugely commendably, the draft structure plan proposes to plug the 100-metre gap opposite the boat ramp, increase the protected depth of forest there from 60 metres to 160. Bizarrely, however, where the backdrop is particularly scanty, opposite Wharf Street, the land in question is not indicated as a not-for-development protection area. This is not to suggest, for a second, that the current property holders should not be compensated should they be obliged to relinquish a reasonable expectation of development. Fair compensation should be an entirely separate and routine matter.

A seriously green network is not just a biodiversity nice-to-have. It is a climate-action prerequisite, and a fundamental to enabling fossil-fuel-free lifestyles where active modes of transport, and close-cousin public transport, finally end the era, and error, of car-centric non-communities. Siting an essentially greenfields satellite growth centre at the end of a motorway was problematic. With school students reduced to striking against the absence of adults in the room, planners must be steely in their resolve to produce a structure plan for tomorrow that proudly broadcasts there is life beyond business-as-usual.

Submissions will be accepted until 25 March. Up to a yet-to-be-advised hour on Monday the 25th, readers may wish to begin serially submitting submissions, using the form below. The next Mahurangi Magazine article will focus on the Lower Density Residential section of the draft plan, but meantime, readers can use the pro forma text below to respond to the vision and green network sections, or fashion their own:

Warkworth Structure Plan submission
You may submit now, or more comprehensively closer to the closing date, midnight Monday 25 March
Vision for Warkworth Structure Plan
Warkworth is a satellite town that retains its natural character, and establishes a clear, inviolate ‘wall’ beyond which it will never encroach upon the adjacent rural. Embracing the Mahurangi River, the tidehead town is palpably connected with the Mahurangi Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf. The river is the strong backbone of rich network of linear parks, paths and cycleways, providing active access throughout the town. Warkworth is compact and surprisingly self-sufficient with plenty of employment, education, shopping and recreation opportunities. Mindful of the existential imperative to rapidly become fossil-fuel-free, Warkworth is the least car-centric country town in Aotearoa.
Green network
A Mahurangi River-based green network is indeed the robust scaffold on which the Warkworth Structure Plan should properly be built. However, a 10-metre stream margin should be considered the minimum to create broad corridors for people, paths and cycling, and for biodiversity. Broader margins could include appropriate development, from canoe hire to cafés. While the additional protection for the Warkworth town basin’s forest backdrop is noted, this should be extended upriver to the skimpy margin immediately opposite the town centre. If the structure plan is designed for an appropriate density, there will be ample area available for a rich, Mahurangi River-based green network.
Single-house preponderance
While the Draft Warkworth Structure Plan mentions climate in 10 places, nowhere does it address development-phase emissions. The default development style involves large-scale earthmoving and heavy use of asphalt for road-making, and steel-reinforced concrete for the floors of buildings. The preponderance of single-house zoning in the draft structure plan would reinforce this old-dated high-carbon-impact development style. What is already overdue is more compact accommodation, built of durable low-emission materials. Wood, with sound design and factory-built construction methods, positively sequesters carbon. Compact development forms allow the broader riparian corridors needed for the Green Network.
Affordability
Appropriately, the draft structure plan discusses the acute regional issue of affordability. However, the preponderance of single-house zoning overall, and particularly in the first, Warkworth North, area to be actively zoned, is not consistent with the need to urgently address accommodation affordability. Affordability is pivotal to Warkworth remaining viable for its current major employers, without the bulk of workers being obliged to commute from Wellsford or Helensville. It is also critical in the context of accommodating refugees, with which New Zealand drags its heels internationally.
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- Please add to feedback already submitted by me February–March 2019

Seriously steeling the green network backbone

Warkworth Structure Plan submission

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