Hub still lacks certainty

The longstanding plan to form a community hub in Whangaparāoa, with access to social services and information, was raised again with the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board at its April 18 meeting. Whangaparāoa Community Hub chair, John Davies, told members that the process has stalled, although a piece of Auckland Council owned land has been set aside for the hub, at 8 Link Crescent, for more than a decade and campaigning to create the facility began long before that.

The Link Crescent land was allocated for the project by the former Rodney District Council in 2010.

However, Davies says the Trust discovered a year ago that the land is currently zoned Open Space/Informal Recreation under Auckland’s Unitary Plan and only a very small community facility (up to 100sqm) can be built there.

The Trust has already got an estimate of around $7m to build a three-storey building on the site.

Davies says for the project to move forward the Link Crescent land needs to be rezoned – a long and expensive process – or a new site found.

He says since the start of this year he has repeatedly asked the local board about the re-zoning but nothing has happened. Meanwhile, the Trust is currently leasing space in Coast Plaza mall.

Hibiscus & Bays Local Board chair, Gary Brown, says the local board has so far not done anything regarding changing the zoning. He says there needs to be more information about the purpose, function, and value to the community of the hub, as money is tight, and the local board needs to prioritise. Public funding granted to the project to date includes money for a feasibility report, which was completed in 2016.

That report found that overall the Family Centre model was likely to be successful, but identified issues with the Link Crescent site’s topography. “Primarily there are concerns with accessibility, flexibility and increased build costs due to the site’s topographical characteristics,” the report said. Its recommendations included that consideration be given to alternative sites. Davies says the last grant that Whangaparāoa Hub Community Trust received from the local board was $30,000 in the year ended March 2022. It was for a report that involved consulting potential anchor tenants from the social and hauora sectors on what they want, other local organisations on what the space might best deliver, design consultants and a project management company on the way forward.

“That report complete, architects who had done other community buildings did a ‘block and place’ design based on the developed needs and the available land at Link Crescent,” he says.

“That is when we discovered the zoning means our plan to build a community hub there is just not possible without a plan change.”