Coastal towns ripe for boom

By JAN CORBETT

Orewa can easily absorb 15,000 more people by sprouting 10-storey buildings and infilling existing urban areas, say two new growth studies.

But both warn the community that higher-density development could degrade the beach resort unless it insists on high standards of design.

Street level shops and offices - with apartments above - should help to create a vibrant and safe Orewa, says a discussion paper prepared by Urban Initiatives for the Rodney District Council.

Orewa, which has a population of 7000, is expected by the Auckland Regional Growth Study to take an additional 15,000 people over the next 50 years.

The Whangaparaoa Peninsula, now with 18,500 people, could accommodate a further 5000.

Infill housing of the type seen in Auckland is shunned by the study in favour of five growth nodes staged at intervals along the peninsula's main roads. The nodes are at Red Beach, Hilltop North, Brightside Rd, Beverley Rd and Pacific Plaza.

A second study for the council looks at appropriate building height and densities for Orewa town centre.

In this, Boffa Miskell consultants suggest the district plan be changed to allow buildings of six to 10 storeys, provided they are across the road from the beach front, and free of shading and wind.

All development in the town centre should comply with new rules for design criteria, says the report.

It adds that resource consents should be compulsory for all town centre development, with tougher conditions for buildings over 10.5m.

Both studies were welcomed last night by promoters of two projects which, if they gain resource consent, will give the town centre its first buildings higher than three levels.

Ian Gillespie, of Gillespie Property Group, said he was seeking consent for a 12-storey mixed commercial- apartment building in Tamariki Ave to give the town "a heart."

Nearby, a seven-storey mixed-use building is planned by Graeme Hinton, of Rodney Real Estate.