New church to be built in Bow St

At its meeting on 11th June, Raglan Community Board members learned from a Waikato District Council report on the Raglan Spatial Plan, that a new church may be built in Bow St, Raglan. The new building is a multi-level development at 34 and 35 Bow St, currently the site of the Matapihi Art Gallery and the Surfside Church food bank. The proposed plans have a residential apartment, church facilities with commercial and retail space on the ground floor fronting Bow St.

A Council officer said that while no resource consent has been received as yet (7 June), that his understanding is that it is imminent.  He added that one of the issues is a height limit (10metres) which will need to be complied with.  Planning staff have engaged with the building consultant already.  In regard to the Raglan CBD Design guidelines the officer said that they are there to be ‘given regard’ to and that once the consent is lodged the appropriate process will be followed. Raglan 23 understands that the Surfside Church already owns all of the land required for the development. Cr Baddeley said he understood that there was still an “access issue” to be resolved.

The Council report on the Spatial Plan study listed this proposed building as one of the reasons for not now going ahead with a Raglan Spatial Plan.

The Board members stated how important the visual impact of the Surfside Church site was, given the approach down Bow St the looking out over the town. The members felt that the visual impact was so important that the community at large needed to be consulted. They passed a resolution, “THAT the Board recommends that the Surfside multi-level proposal be treated as a publicly notified resource consent application.”