Ōpārau’s independence as a rural outlier in the Kāwhia Harbour is under discussion as the Ōtorohanga District Council’s concept plans move into its rural phase.
The suggestion of the council’s chief adviser, Ross McNeil, that the two communities “for reasons of practicality” be counted as one, was opposed by community board member Dave Walsh.
“I’m not in favour of including Ōpārau and inner harbour, I think that’s rural whereas the Kāwhia and Aotea concept plans, that’s for our residential areas here.
“The rural one, that’s a different area, a different make-up. And what we do here doesn’t directly impact Ōpārau at all.”
Ross said the thinking around the scope of the area covered by the Aotea/Kāwhia concept plan ought to be a little further afield to take in Ōpārau.
“And for a completeness point of view, it’s likely the Kāwhia harbour will have some focus and attention for those feeding in to the project, so it makes sense that’s captured by one concept plan rather than by straddling two,” Ross said.
Dave said the Kāwhia and Aotea community board areas were defined by their vote whereas residents outside those zones voted rural. So, they should be covered by the rural plan.
Councillor Kit Jeffries said he understood where Dave was coming from, but thought from a pragmatic point of view there were some synergies – including the lifestyle blocks immediately outside the boundary with Kāwhia/Aotea whose owners didn’t consider themselves to be rural in the true sense and the community of interest was probably in Kāwhia.
“If you are too literal about Kāwhia and Aotea in terms of the concept plan, you will have the area solely covered by the community board. So that’s just the Aotea enclave and the Kāwhia enclave,” Ross said.
“But even between here [Kāwhia] and Aotea, that is not technically the area covered by the board.
“And it makes no sense to me to exclude that.
“In the same way, it makes no sense to exclude an area like Ōpārau where the community of interest and the contact is almost always going to be back to Kāwhia.”
Community board deputy chair Hinga Whiu said the magic words were “community of interest.”
“Now that I can hear the rationale around the whole kaupapa, it is important for us to be inclusive, not exclusive,” she said.
Board chair Geoff Goode said if the concept plan discussion was limited to the voting base of Kāwhia township and Aotea subdivision, they wouldn’t have any marae involved.
It was important they did not exclude the marae around the Kāwhia moana or the two marae around Aotea harbour.
Ross said the purpose of the exercise was to hear from people in the community. Part of that was working with, hearing from, and getting input from the advisory group and the mana whenua advisory group.
“But the focus will still be on Kāwhia and Ōpārau. It’s more from a practical point of view when you take into that community of interest factor that there’s a natural focus back into this area.”
The first phase of the community engagement was scheduled to take place over King’s Birthday Weekend, as there was likely to be more people in and around the village, providing a greater opportunity to connect with people directly.
Ross said a drop-in style event was planned, probably on the Sunday. At Dave’s suggestion this would be on the Sunday afternoon.
“We will be here because we want thoughts, aspirations, concerns and opportunities for people in this community,” Ross said.
