PONSONBY PARK

PONSONBY PARK - THE IDEAL ‘SHOVEL READY’ PROJECT

The vision for Ponsonby Park, the new civic space at 254 Ponsonby Road, has consistently been informed by the values of democracy, inclusiveness and sustainability.

It has been developed BY the community and FOR the community through a community-led design (CLD) process.

A Brief history In 2000 a report by Boffa Miskell Ltd. confirmed the wider Ponsonby area was under-supplied with public amenity space and in 2006, the land at 254 Ponsonby Road was purchased to address this shortfall. The Waitemata Local Board’s (WLB) ‘Draft Ponsonby Road Masterplan’ in July 2013 and a subsequent petition in 2014 - requesting the whole site be retained for the civic space - resulted in the Ponsonby Park site being de-coupled from the masterplan and a site-specific consultation was held.

March 2016 saw the project devolved by the WLB to the community, via a CLD process with a brief to: ‘Develop a design concept with an indicative budget, for a whole site civic space using community-led design principles’. So the CLD group got down to work!

In May 2017 we formally presented the LandLAB Park+ design and budget to the WLB - an extraordinary accomplishment by a small, voluntary group of community people. And in December that year, Ponsonby Park was included in the Auckland Council, Long Term Plan. February 2020 saw the WLB approve the business case for Ponsonby Park and this was progressed to Council for the balance of the budget. Then in March 2020, on the very day the funding was to be approved, Covid-19 forced Auckland Council to move to an emergency budget and no further spending was approved – including that for Ponsonby Park.

March 2021 saw the latest Auckland Council Long Term Plan 20212031 consultation concluded. Which brings us up to date.

We are optimistic that the Ponsonby Park project will now be reactivated. It has been 21 years since the need was identified and 15 years since the land was purchased.

Ponsonby is iconic, diverse and urban, and the Waitemata is one of the fastest-growing areas in Auckland - its population is projected to grow by 35 percent from 17,489 to 23,561 people in the next 30 years. Both the wider and local communities have shown significant and sustained engagement for the Ponsonby Park project. And why wouldn’t they when it has so much to offer? It will be an urban oasis that will be good for the people, good for the environment and good for Auckland.

(The LandLAB Park+ design won the international ‘World Architecture News – Future Civic category’ award and was shortlisted at the prestigious ‘World Architecture Festival’ in the “Future Civic’ category that year too).

In 2018 Auckland Council voted unanimously to retain and develop the whole site as the preferred option and in 2019 additional funding was allocated to Ponsonby Park. It is an ideal ‘shovel ready’ project that will provide not only a phenomenal (and self funding) community facility, but also a social heart for the local and wider community.

Ponsonby Park - what’s not to love? Bring it on. Now! (JENNIFER WARD)  PN

www.254ponsonbyrd.org.nz

JOHN ELLIOTT: MAINTAINING AMENITY VALUES DURING POPULATION INTENSIFICATION IN AUCKLAND

This is the paper I presented to the Waitematā Local Board on Tuesday 16 March.

I have worried a lot recently about tree demolition in Auckland City. And I still do, despite a Local Board plan to achieve 30 perecent tree cover by 2050. However, trees are only one of the amenity values we should be considering.

While I have been considering and discussing population intensification in Auckland City in recent years with residents, developers, politicians and council officers, I have heard a lot about NIMBYism. I have always supported population intensification, and deplored urban sprawl, and I still do. However, after I read a report by former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, J. Morgan Williams, I have modified my views somewhat. His report, called ‘The Management of Suburban Amenity Values’, while supporting intensification, calls on Aucklanders to clarify their amenity values, and ask Council to protect and enhance the most important ones.

Morgan Williams is talking about an extensive list which might include vegetation, views, sunlight, heritage, architecture, noise levels, privacy, physical safety, and many more. He lists the threats to values, including changes to the streetscape, increased dominance of the built environment, loss of public and private open space, increased traffic generation, on-street car parking, loss of special character, and many more.

Morgan Williams advocated in his paper that local residents should get together and set down what amenity values they like best, those which they want retained and enhanced, and perhaps those which they would be prepared to sacrifice for excellent population intensification.

I think we have now reached the stage where this exercise should take place in local community hubs. It can be done in small bites, by a few streets getting together, or in larger groups like, say, West Lynn residents. Lists can be prepared and presented to Local Boards or Council. Council would accept that before amenity was lost, serious consultation would occur. Many NIMBY accusations might evaporate, when residents explain what values they care about and want to preserve.

Intensification will obviously affect amenity values, but good mitigation might be more possible with greater consultation. I’d like to see Waitemata Local Board embrace the idea, and ask our local communities to engage with it. At the very least, I encourage all board members to read Morgan Williams paper. My submission was well received. Local board member, Alex Bonham, who holds the planning portfolio told me she thought it timely. The board had been attending workshops on the National Policy Statement on Urban Development in which the question of what made for a well-functioning urban form was central. There seemed to be a desire among board members to pass my report on to officials.

Subsequent to the board meeting I talked with Alex Bonham about her Auckland Fringe Festival play, An Extraordinary Meeting. This play, devised by Alex and the cast, is rooted in the Urban Growth Agenda, which is, in the Government’s words “an ambitious programme that aims to remove barriers to the supply of land and infrastructure and make room for cities to grow up and out.”

The play focuses on the National Policy Statement on Urban Development which demands a well-functioning urban form.

What this means is only partly defined, allowing councils to determine their own standards. In the play, the audience forms a council to discuss and decide what makes a city function well, not just for economic growth but for them as people, and that will serve for future generations too.

The theme of this play fits in perfectly with my paper about the preservation of residents’ favourite amenity values while Auckland’s population explodes.

The blurb promoting the play says the show “combines verbatim theatre and participatory theatre. It is inspired by the rituals and rules of real local councils that allow strangers to make impossibly hard decisions together.”

I look forward to attending the play, and I look forward too, to continuing to push Council to always consider residents attachment to certain amenity values near where they live.

An Extraordinary Meeting is at the Basement Theatre 30 March to 1 April and includes guest experts including Grant Hewitson of the Low Carbon Network, Tom Irvine of Ngati Whatua Orakei, Emma McInnes of Women in Urbanism, and Greer O’Donnell of The Urban Advisory. (JOHN ELLIOTT)  PN

OLYMPIC AMBASSADOR SAM CHARLTON SHARES MEMORIES FROM CHILDHOOD

This week, students from St Mary’s College in Ponsonby greeted Olympic Ambassador Sam Charlton with well-hugged teddy bears, orange-beaked puppets and wooden handled skipping ropes.

“This is my skipping rope I got when I was three. I love skipping,” says Lily, a Year 7 student. Sam’s face explodes in a wide grin as she shares her favourite memory from childhood.

“I was definitely a soft toy collector. They keep you company - you don’t want to leave them at home,” says Sam. But today isn’t only about sharing happy memories.

Sam and the students are stepping up to support Syrian children who have lived through a decade of war. Children who have lost their homes, their schools, their friends and been forced to leave their toys behind as the sounds of bullets echoed around them.

ReliefAid’s ‘BounceBack4Syria’ programme is delivering skipping ropes, hula hoops and soccer balls to children in Idlib so they can play and build resilience.

In Northwest Syria, ten-year-old Malak has been living in a small tent in a dusty displacement camp for several years. She quickly puts on a special dress and poses for the camera.

“I want to tell you that I love to play, but we have nothing here in the camp,” says Malak. Every day she makes up games with her friends using stones and rocks, longing for the toys she used to play with. ReliefAid is the only New Zealand-founded organisation delivering aid in Syria – they’re experts at delivering life-saving supplies in conflict zones. Since December 2015, they have provided shelter and educational aid to over 210,000 people in crisis, including more than 142,000 at-risk children and 107,000 vulnerable girls and women, amongst other programmes.

For the first time ever, ReliefAid are now delivering toys to Syrian children with the support of generous New Zealanders, and Malak couldn’t wait to try out her bright green skipping rope.

“I liked this game very much and learned it quickly, it makes me jump in the air high,” says Malak.

Students from St Mary’s College are gathering donations to support the second delivery of toys and are urging Kiwis to help meet the $10,000 goal.

“If there are ways that you can help other children who aren’t as fortunate, then I think it’s important we do that. How can we spread that message around the world?” says Sam.

To support Relief Aid and build children’s resilience for a better future visit: www.reliefaid.org.nz