Waikato District Council is holding a meeting at 10am on Wed 11 March in the Town Hall Supper Room to discuss a Raglan special character area (for the District Plan) and its boundaries. Council will get a Landscape Architect to do a character study of Raglan, but they’re asking what area it should cover. What do you think?
John Lawson of Whaingaroa Environmental Defence says WED supported the 2003 design guide (see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kb9kO7qisf2pz3LnheKaMHwnpho_nntyJP3nyCmwr0c/edit?usp=sharing), saying views are part of Raglan’s seaside character and asked for protection of those to the harbour, coast and natural backdrops, including:
- (a) From SH23 to Kaitoke Creek;
- (b) Views of the bar from Main Rd, Bow St & Norrie Ave;
- (c) Views of Karioi from Raglan CBD;
- (d) From Wainui Rd to the coast, next to the Bible Camp;
- (e) From SH23 summit to Karioi; and
- (f) AroAro salt marsh from Wallis St.
WED also said there should be a design manual for the entire built area of Raglan to set design, fabric, texture, etc, but avoid the current trend towards all buildings being 7.2m high boxes. Commercial buildings in the CBD should have a ‘Raglan look’, such as weatherboard and new ones should be single storey, or re-use existing buildings. Do you agree and, if so, should such designs cover only the CBD, the whole of Raglan, or what?
In 2003 WED asked for the whole Coastal Overlay area to become a conservation area (including Raglan), where all major changes and consents which infringe District Plan rules, or which exceed one storey, would go to publicly notifiable resource consents. Is that too big an area?WED suggested a possible alternative could be similar to Hamilton’s Special Character areas (see https://www.hamilton.govt.nz/our-council/council-publications/districtplans/ODP/chapter5/Pages/5-2-Objectives-and-Policies.aspx).
Would it help to have a WED meeting on this before council comes?