Plans, policies and reports
Hauraki Gulf Islands review
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Issues and options papers
Oneroa
Issue
Oneroa is currently the largest commercial retail area in the Hauraki Gulf
Islands, and has been identified in Essentially Waiheke as the main town centre
for Waiheke Island.
It has been difficult to establish the character of Oneroa. However, recent
development has allowed for better use of open space, and development of
viewshafts to Oneroa Bay. For Oneroa to compete as a successful village centre,
the District Plan needs to encourage vibrant development that will attract both
current residents on the island and visitors to the island. To attract residents
and visitors Oneroa needs to grow. To accommodate growth over the next 20 years,
Oneroa township will need either to expand or to intensify. This may be achieved
through increased residential growth in the town centre, so it has a resident
population. Another alternative may be backpackers or visitor facility units.
Recent wastewater reticulation in the area will assist growth.
To make Oneroa more attractive, better links, walkways and flow of the
village down to the waterfront at Oneroa Bay could be encouraged. This might
better establish a maritime and beach link, and cement Oneroa's status as a
unique island village. However, most of the existing policy area is on the
southern side of the ridgeline. In terms of aspect this is the coldest part of
the village, with southerly winds.
The Oneroa design guidelines are currently in a non-statutory design
guideline document and thus are unable to be enforced. They may need to be
reviewed and more specific guidelines put in place. Such guidelines could
encourage the Waiheke vernacular (architectural 'language' or style) and form a
statutory appendix to the Plan.
Controls on the clearance of vegetation in the Oneroa policy area are not
consistent with vegetation rules elsewhere in the Plan, which protect only
native species. In addition, removal of exotics cannot be prevented. Whilst the
area is expected to have higher amenity, this is generally not contributed to by
exotic plant species on private land, but rather by built form, open spaces and
street planting. This policy could be reviewed to determine whether there should
be specific controls on vegetation removal in the policy area.
Attempts to remove service providers (for example, banks and real estate
agents) from street frontages have been unsuccessful. This concept could be
removed from the Plan, as there are a large number of such services that front
on to Ocean View Road.
Possible approaches
You may have a better or alternative approach to those outlined below. If so,
we would like to hear from you.
- Maintain the status quo with existing rules and policy area.
- Formalise the purpose and function of service lanes, with design
guidelines addressing amenity and frontage onto the service lanes.
- Encourage the establishment of high-intensity visitor facilities in the
village centre (such as backpackers or hotels).
- Recognise the importance of views from public places (as opposed to
private property views) when providing for any changes to the height of
buildings in the area.
- Provide for art pieces (sculptures, installations) as a permitted activity
on private land up to a certain size (or on public land with Council
approval) to encourage vibrancy of the village.
- Consider further mixed use development in the town centre to encourage
people to live within the village, perhaps allowing apartments above ground
level.
- Remove rules relating to service providers fronting on to Ocean View Road.
- Investigate options for altering the policy area boundaries by pushing to
the west up Ocean View Road.
- Investigate options for intensifying development within the existing
policy area boundaries.
- Move the existing policy area to the northern side of the ridge and down
to the waterfront, resulting in a warmer 'feel' for the village and
establishing links with the sea and beachfront.
- Remove the policy area altogether and let growth of the township occur as
the market demands.
- Increase the amount of Land Unit 13 - Retailing in the surrounding area.
- Create better statutory-based guidelines as an appendix to the Plan.
- Review the activity status and necessity for all rules within the policy
area where these are duplicated elsewhere, or have not been effective in
achieving desired outcomes.
- Remove the policy area rules and Land Unit 13 zoning and create a specific
Oneroa Land Unit.
Note:
While this issue paper can be read in isolation, it is best read in
association with the issue papers relating to:
