Puhoi River Park

PUHOI RIVER PARK SOCIETY

On the 11^th of June 2008 the Puhoi River Park Society was officially launched. This followed the announcement by the new mayor of Rodney Penny Webster, that the Council had decided to retain all of the land on the north side of the river for the purposes of a reserve.

The launch of the society was addressed by Councillor Dr Grahame Powell on behalf of the RDC. An extract of the presentation will be published on this web page.

PRESENTATION TO THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE PUHOI RIVER PARK SOCIETY

Chairing the meeting Morag Standbrook said that the object of the meeting was to recruit volunteers for the Committee. This goal was achieved in fine style as by the end of the meeting we had 10 individuals sign up to the inaugural committee of the Puhoi River Park Society.

Historical data

PUHOI RIVER PARK Within the next few months the status of the Puhoi River Park will be confirmed by the RDC. Issues regarding the funding of the RDC loan will be resolved. A management plan for the development of the Park will be worked out between the RDC and representitves of the Puhoi Community. A formal Charitable Trust will be formed and the life of the Puhoi River Park will truly begin.......

Puhoi River Park Charitable Trust- Preparatery Document.

GIANT LEAP FORWARD (from the Feruary 2007 news letter)

The formation of a Puhoi River Park Charitable Trust has been put on hold until the long-awaited RDC Puhoi Domain Management Plan, which will include river park management, has been drafted. The plan, which was halted by lack of council staff to work on it, has recently been ‘jump started’, the meeting heard.

Proposed Submission to this years annual plan see this months agena (April).

The Puhoi Community Forum Inc. submits

that Council defer any plans to sell, develop or otherwise dispose of either of the two blocks of land it owns on the bank of the river in Puhoi (legal description?) until a Structure Plan has been established for the village.

Reason:

Council acquired the land in question several years ago with a view of possibly turning it into a public domain, provided the Puhoi community demonstrated sufficient interest and a willingness to invest time and effort into developing it for public use.

From the start, the community as a whole applauded the Council's acquisition of this land as visionary because - along with the existing domain - it provides a green strip from the state highway to the DoC reserve further upstream. Above all, as a domain it would preserve the peaceful character of the Puhoi valley and the unique charm of the village. For these reasons, Puhoi as a whole has been treating this land as a giant community project and an enormous amount of work has gone into planning, removing dangerous trees, fencing, looking after the grazing, building walkways and planting. The legal work for the formation of a trust to fund-raise and care for the land - should it become public - has also been completed.

As it is situated at the end of the Auckland motorway, Puhoi is subject to considerable attention from developers. Consequently, there is a distinct danger that random, ad hoc and uncoordinated development might swamp our community. To guide such development into sensible channels, the Puhoi Community Forum is working with Council staff to establish a Structure Plan for Puhoi and we request that Council defer any plans its staff might have to dispose of all or part of the land in question until such a Structure Plan is firmly in place.