KEY POINTS:
Opponents of a new plan to revamp Orewa are using a mock photo that shows dozens of high-rise buildings sprouting from the coastal plain and a caption: "This is what your town could look like - or worse."
A pamphlet from the Orewa Ratepayers and Residents Association says the Rodney District Council is to approve 20 or more towers, with 12-15 levels in residential areas and 25-plus levels in an enlarged central business district.
At present the town has one tower, the 12-level Nautilus apartment block, which was built in 2004.
But the question of whether more of them should be allowed and how open the council's draft master plan should be to growth are set to be hot issues in this year's council elections.
"We want to be a nice seaside town," said association chairman John Drury. "If the council's plan goes ahead, it will open up the whole of Orewa to high-rise buildings."
Mr Drury said 430 people attending a public meeting and 600 responding to a questionnaire said they did not want anything over five levels back from the main road through the town and a three-level limit on the waterfront.
"Our residents want the town to thrive and to be a community, " he said. "Not a place of apartment towers that people buy for holiday homes like Surfers Paradise."
The association has called for its 300 members and sympathisers to join a protest on February 1 at the council to coincide with councillors arriving for a strategy and policy meeting.
The association was concerned the council refused to answer the question: How many buildings and how high? Members also wanted the council to reconsider its refusal to hold a referendum on the issue.
Mayor John Law said the association's pamphlet headed "Don't let them ruin Orewa" was deliberately misleading and confusing people about present allowances and what the draft master plan proposed.
"Under the present District Plan done in the 1990s, you could have 10-storey buildings virtually 15m apart, which is not the outcome we want," said Mr Law.
"The master plan is trying to reduce the number of towers allowable to about six, and there are no high-rises for the beach.
"Anything there would have to be three-storey."
Mr Law said models showing "an exciting and realistic vision" for the town had been on public display and the master plan would go through a proper planning process in the next few months. The council was against having a referendum because results were inaccurate and open to manipulation by interest groups.
But the draft master plan has its critics among town developers too.
Brendan Coghlan, of Coastal Properties, said the plan should be trying to accommodate growth instead of locking it out.
It allows Orewa to handle a growth in population from the present 5600 residents to 14,500 by 2050. He said the town had grown 25 per cent in the past five years and, if that rate continued, Orewa would reach 14,500 by 2027.
Leanne Smith, of Destination Orewa Beach, said the town centre was too small to take any more than four high-rise buildings.
"The community is saying, 'If this is the growth coming, let's deal with it in a little bit more height and minimum site coverage to give open space and the look we want'."
Businesses in the town centre were struggling with high rents and loss of customers to competing retailers 15 minutes' drive away on the North Shore.
"This council has a responsibility to protect the town centre's economic viability and deal with the issues. It can't keep delaying it."
Maygrove Residents Association president Tom Mayne said 120 people who responded to its survey generally accepted up to seven-storey buildings in the town centre and five-storey buildings on the flat between the two main road bridges.
High-rise debate
Locals say: The council will approve 20 or more towers, with 12-15 levels in residential areas and 25-plus levels in an enlarged CBD.
Council says: It wants to reduce the number of towers to six - under the 1990s district plan 10-storey buildings 15m apart are allowed - with no high-rises for the beach. Any high-rises will be spread evenly through the CBD.
Growth story
* Orewa's population of 5600 is projected to grow to 14,500 by 2050.
* However, the town has grown 25 per cent in the past five years, which means the population could reach 14,500 by 2027.
