Meadows Church and M2PP strike win-win deal

WIN-WIN: Meadows Church Pastor Adam White next to construction of a large community park which is being built by the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway Alliance project team.

Construction of a new large community green space is well under way after a win-win deal struck between the Meadows Church and the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway Alliance project team (M2PP).

M2PP is building an eye-catching 3ha park that features walking and cycling tracks, two large lakes, wetland areas and 7230 plants, and is also creating a blank canvas on about 2ha of land for the church's future boutique business precinct.

The work is on church land located back a bit from the corner of Mazengarb Rd and Realm Drive in Paraparaumu.

In exchange, M2PP has been able to excavate masses of sand from the church land and use it to create part of the expressway, which has saved M2PP a lot of money.

Pastor Adam White said the church had been hoping to develop the land for several years, and even had consent to create the boutique business precinct on land now rezoned light commercial, but it didn't have the funds to do so.

The deal with M2PP was "a miracle", he told Kapiti News.

"If we were to have done all of what they're doing, it would have cost us well over $1.5m.

"M2PP has benefited, we've benefited, and the community is going to get a huge green area."

Plans to build several houses on the land, which is now becoming a park, had been removed. Park tracks would also connect to a cycleway being created alongside the expressway, and possibly to another area by a trig if council is keen.

He hoped another miracle would come from somewhere to enable the business precinct to be built, which would enable the creation of a 1000-seat auditorium for the church [funded for leasing buildings].

M2PP project manager Alan Orange said 60,000 cubic metres of sand had been excavated from the church land.

"The central zone has a shortfall of sand to construct the expressway main alignment in the general Mazengarb Rd area.

"We could have imported rock from the quarry but that is a slow process, involves considerable trucking on local roads, and requires heavy vibration compaction equipment.

"The opportunity to obtain sand from the Meadows Church site means it's easily accessible from within our project site, is quick to place and compacts well relatively quietly.

"Its given us the opportunity to accelerate our construction programme in this urban residential area and cause less disruption to the community.

"A a result, land along the Meadows/expressway boundary has become available to construct a noise bund out of peat and topsoil to further mitigate the visual and noise impact of the expressway to local residents; additionally benefiting the M2PP with the opportunity to dispose of surplus peat."

Mr White said working with M2PP had been fantastic.

"There hasn't been a thing that we haven't asked for that they haven't bent over backwards to make happen."