Feasibility study underway for Kāpiti Island Gateway Centre

The Kāpiti Coast District Council is progressing work to investigate the feasibility of building a Kāpiti Island Gateway Centre at Paraparaumu Beach.   

Economic Development Manager Darryn Grant says Kāpiti Island is an internationally famed nature reserve protecting some of New Zealand's most endangered birds.  

“The 1965-hectare island is one of the few relatively accessible island nature reserves in the country and is one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent sites for bird recovery. 

“The Paraparaumu Boating Club carpark and the adjoining Maclean Park form the gateway to Kāpiti Island and it is important that there is infrastructure, processes and systems in place to protect and enhance access to this unique visitor experience.” 

“Through our 2018-38 Toitū Kāpiti long-term plan we signalled that we would progress work to investigate the viability of a Kāpiti Island Gateway Centre and we’re now in a positon to do this work,” said Mr Grant.  

Improving the Kāpiti Island departure point and providing an iconic visitor experience has been a discussion point for many years. More recently, it has come up in conversation about the redevelopment of Maclean Park and opportunities for Kāpiti to secure funding from the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund.” 

Mr Grant says the feasibility study will be used to assist future discussion with partners and the community, and decision making about the form and function of a potential Gateway building and where it could be located.  

“No decisions have been made. The study will help inform next steps.”

-KCDC

Speed limit changes come into effect for Kāpiti local roads

The Kāpiti Coast District Council is advising motorists that new speed limits for 47 rural roads and three village centres (Paekākāriki, Raumati South and Raumati Beach) will come into effect next week.  

Group Manager Infrastructure Services, Sean Mallon, says the changes were decided by Council following consultation with communities earlier in the year.  

“We’ll be putting up new and updated signs from Monday 15 July, and they should all be in place by the end of the week. We’d like motorists to keep an eye out for them.” 

“Once the signs are in, the speed limits will be enforceable by law and we hope everyone does their bit to help make these roads safer for all users.”  

Mr Mallon says the new limits are about improving road safety and take into account safety risk, the roadside environment and how the road is currently used. They were also set in accordance with national rules and guidelines for speed limits administered by the NZ Transport Agency. 

The Transport Agency’s Regional Transport Systems Manager Mark Owen says he is pleased about the level of support for speed changes and the discussion being had on road safety in the region. 

“Communities from across the region have highlighted that speed is a concern and it’s great to see our council partners taking steps to address this. The Transport Agency is also working to address speed because we know that speed is the number one factor in determining whether people survive a crash.”

The full list of speed limit changes and the rationale for each is available on Council’s website.

www.kcdc.govt.nz

-KCDC

New member appointed to Kāpiti Coast District Council’s Audit and Risk Committee

Kāpiti Coast District Councillor and Audit and Risk Committee Chair, Mike Cardiff, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Bryan Jackson as a new independent member of the Committee. 

“Mr Jackson will join the Committee for three years to serve as one of its two independent members,” says Councillor Cardiff. 

“He comes from a business background in sales and marketing, and has been working in management and directors roles for nearly 40 years.  

“He has also been an active member and chair of numerous business associations, community boards and charitable trusts, giving him a great range of experience to bring to the table when it comes to community issues. 

“I’d like to welcome Mr Jackson to the Committee. I am sure he’ll contribute an extremely worthy independent viewpoint over the next few years – for the Kāpiti Coast and the Council.”

-KCDC

LED street lights to reduce lighting costs by $130,000 a year

The Council has just finished converting the District’s 4,700 street lamps to LED bulbs – a more modern and efficient type of lighting.  

“At the Council we’re constantly on the lookout for ways to reduce energy consumption, and running our street lights is one of the big expenses on our power bills,” says Council’s Group Manager Infrastructure Services, Sean Mallon. 

“Our latest power bill in June showed a near-70% drop in street light energy consumption compared to the same time last year. Now we’ve finished the conversions we’re expecting to see savings of at least $130k a year. 

“We’re also anticipating some minor additional savings on maintenance costs as LEDs (or light emitting diode bulbs) tend to last about 15 years longer than the old sodium vapour bulbs.  

“We’ll be re-investing the savings back into our upkeep of the District’s road networks.”    

Mr Mallon says the conversions took place over a two year period and were made possible as a result of a one-off government subsidy from the NZ Transport Authority, which covered 85% of the funding.   

“The conversion to LED street lighting is a significant change the Council has been able to make to reduce our carbon footprint and be more efficient in the way we operate.”

-KCDC

Major investment in the future of our drinking water supply

A $16 million investment in water supply, safety and resilience is underway in the Kāpiti Coast District. That’s on top of the $9 million spent in 2015 on the first stage of work to upgrade the Waikanae Water Treatment Plant. 

Martyn Cole, Water & Wastewater Asset Manager says the Council is committed to providing safe, clean, reliable and resilient drinking water supplies for the community.  

“That’s why we’re continuing to invest in an ongoing programme of planned improvements to our water treatment plants in Waikanae, Ōtaki and Hautere to help meet this commitment.” 

Mr Cole says the work is already underway and is expected to be completed in 2022.    

“We are constantly working to make sure our community has a safe and reliable drinking water supply. We use a multi barrier approach. We continuously disinfect with chlorine and treat with high-intensity ultra violet (UV) light to kill any micro-organisms (bacteria, protozoa and viruses) that might be in the water.” 

“We continue to monitor and review our drinking water supplies to identify any issues, where we need to invest and what the size of our investment should be.” 

An upgrade of the Paekākāriki water treatment plant was completed in mid-2018. This involved replacing the microfilters to help ensure the Council could continue to provide the community with safe clean drinking water. 

Work is already underway on major upgrades at the Hautere and two Ōtaki water treatment plants and to progress the second stage of the upgrade at the Waikanae Water Treatment Plant. Construction is planned to start at the end of next year. 

“The work at Waikanae is about resilience – some of our equipment is nearing the end of its life so it needs replacing. We also need to ensure this plant is robust enough to withstand a major earthquake,” said Mr Cole. “This plant serves more than 41,000 people in our community so is an absolute priority.” 

Water supply quality assurance is driving the upgrades at Hautere and the Council’s two Ōtaki treatment plants. 

“The water from these treatment plants is safe to drink but occasionally experiences high turbidity (cloudy water) which means it does not meet all of the measures in the water safety standards all of the time and we have put additional measures in place to keep people safe,” said Mr Cole.   

“We’re investing $6 million to upgrade both the Hautere and Ōtaki treatment plants to improve the resilience and reliability of these drinking water supplies.”

-KCDC

Working towards carbon neutrality by 2025

Kāpiti Coast District Councillors agreed yesterday to reaffirm the Council’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025, after considering some of the potential ways it could get there. 

Deputy Mayor Janet Holborow says reducing emissions and becoming carbon neutral is part of the Council’s response to climate change.   

“Having declared a Climate Change emergency this concrete goal is a real opportunity to identify practical steps we can take as an organisation and as a role model in our community to be environmentally responsible. 

“The Council has already significantly reduced its carbon emissions by implementing changes to how it manages the treatment of wastewater and the types of fuel it uses,” said the Deputy Mayor. 

“Further investigation is needed to identify what additional steps we need to take. This includes looking at options such as joining a carbon neutral certification scheme, replacing some of the Council’s fleet vehicles and planting trees to further reduce and offset carbon emissions.” 

The goal of carbon neutrality relates to the net carbon emissions produced by Council’s activities.  Net carbon emissions refer to the total amount of carbon emitted minus any offsets.  To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, Council will need to offset all of its unavoidable carbon emissions, so that its net emissions amount to zero.

Group Manager Corporate Services Mark de Haast says further investigation is needed to inform the development of a plan for the Council to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.

“The plan will need to identify feasible initiatives and any additional resource requirements for Councillors and the community to consider as part of the 2021-41 long term plan process,” he said.

-KCDC

Responding to climate change and sea level rise a priority for Council

The Kāpiti Coast District Council is gearing up to have a community conversation about what it might need to do to help Kāpiti Coast communities thrive in the face of climate change and coastal erosion or sea level rise. 

Mayor K Gurunathan says the impacts of climate change are significant and we can no longer afford to sit on our hands. 

“As a coastal community with more than 1,800 properties, not to mention businesses and public infrastructure, potentially affected along our 42 kilometres of coastline, we know we need to take action. 

“At the heart of this is a conversation with our iwi partners, affected and interested parties, and our community about how we want to adapt as our coastline changes over time. 

“We’ve studied the Clifton to Tangoio Coastal Hazards Strategy, a community-led coastal adaption programme which has worked well in the Hawkes Bay, and we think there are elements of this approach that could be applied to a community-led conversation in Kāpiti and across the wider Wellington region. 

“There’s a lot of ground to cover and we know people will have mixed views about how, when and what actions might be needed but we’re committed to starting a substantial, careful and respectful community conversation about how we respond, as a community, to coastal challenges over the next 12 to 18 months.”

The Mayor says the Greater Wellington Regional Council has indicated that they would like to be part of this conversation. 

“It makes sense to join forces and share resources where we can, as Greater Wellington, as our regional consenting authority, has a vested interest in our environment and providing an effective response to climate change.”

Working towards carbon neutrality by 2025

Kāpiti Coast District Councillors agreed yesterday to reaffirm the Council’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2025, after considering some of the potential ways it could get there. 

Deputy Mayor Janet Holborow says reducing emissions and becoming carbon neutral is part of the Council’s response to climate change.   

“Having declared a Climate Change emergency this concrete goal is a real opportunity to identify practical steps we can take as an organisation and as a role model in our community to be environmentally responsible. 

“The Council has already significantly reduced its carbon emissions by implementing changes to how it manages the treatment of wastewater and the types of fuel it uses,” said the Deputy Mayor. 

“Further investigation is needed to identify what additional steps we need to take. This includes looking at options such as joining a carbon neutral certification scheme, replacing some of the Council’s fleet vehicles and planting trees to further reduce and offset carbon emissions.” 

The goal of carbon neutrality relates to the net carbon emissions produced by Council’s activities.  Net carbon emissions refer to the total amount of carbon emitted minus any offsets.  To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, Council will need to offset all of its unavoidable carbon emissions, so that its net emissions amount to zero.

Group Manager Corporate Services Mark de Haast says further investigation is needed to inform the development of a plan for the Council to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.

“The plan will need to identify feasible initiatives and any additional resource requirements for Councillors and the community to consider as part of the 2021-41 long term plan process,” he said.

-KCDC

Kāpiti flavoured events offered a chance at funding

Costella

The 2019 Kāpiti Major Events Fund, offered through the Kāpiti Coast District Council’s economic development programme, has opened for applications to run events that have a unique Kāpiti flavour and will help bring visitors to the District.

Council approved a $40,000 addition from its economic development budget to the contestable fund this week, bringing the amount available to support events that will build the Kāpiti District’s long-term economy to $200,000.

Kāpiti Coast District Council Economic Development Manager Darryn Grant says the Council has also updated the application criteria this year to help make it more clear for applicants what types of events might be successfully selected for financial support.

“The additional funds in the pool this year mean we can look at supporting new or bigger events  that show the potential to be self-sustaining in future years and bring long-term benefit to the District,” Mr Grant says.

“We’re definitely hoping to see some fresh ideas as well as continuing to build events that have already become iconic ones in Kāpiti.

“We’re keen to hear what innovative ideas are out there to showcase and profile the Kāpiti Coast and its community and in particular, attract visitors in the off-season between April and October.

“Our goal is to build a diverse calendar of events that attracts visitors, adds vibrancy to our communities and ultimately provide a return on investment for the local economy,” he says.

A maximum funding level has been set for the major event category which event organisers can apply for, spreading available funds across a range of event types and activities. This includes an allowance for events that are at the conceptual stage and require feasibility studies to get them off the ground.

Over the past three years eight Kāpiti events have received funding support, including the Kāpiti Food Fair, the Maoriland Film and Ōtaki Kite festivals, Coastella and the Kāpiti Coast Jazz Festival.

The full criteria and information about how to make an application are on the Council’s website. Applications close on Wednesday 24 July at midday.

The fund was established by the Council in 2016 to help develop and grow signature events on the Kāpiti Coast, with event development identified as a key driver in achieving long-term economic development in the District.

Final decisions about which events will receive funding will be made by the Council on 8 August 2019.

www.kapiticoast.govt.nz/majoreventsfund

-KCDC

POPUP BUSINESS SCHOOL TRADE SHOW COMING TO COASTLANDS

Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash

Participants in Kāpiti's second PopUp business school will be sharing their business ideas with the public at a one-off trade show at Coastlands.

The budding business-operators will be at the Coastlands Garden Court from 1pm to 2.30pm on Tuesday 2 July to present the ideas they've been working on as part of the fee-free business course.

Sponsored by the Kāpiti Coast District Council, Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA) and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) the course helps participants understand the potential of their business idea and map out a pathway to success.

Kāpiti Coast District Council Economic Development Manager Darryn Grant is very pleased with the interest and participation in the school this year, with over 50 people attending.

“The entrepreneurial ideas and the buzz over the first few days of the course has been really impressive and we’re so pleased to be able to support such a great initiative that’s focused on future growth of Kāpiti business.”

Mr Grant encourages people to come along and support the district’s future start-ups at the trade show.

"Last year's trade show was a huge success. Our entrepreneurs will be showcasing their business ideas and will have products and services for sale. Thanks to the support and hospitality of Coastlands, this is a great opportunity to have some fun and support our District’s budding business people. Coastlands really enjoyed hosting us last year and looking forward to another successful show," he says.

School facilitator Tony Henderson-Newport says the show offers course attendees a great opportunity to experience a retail environment.

"They'll draw real business knowledge from this involvement and engagement with potential customers. Showcasing their product or service in this way provides invaluable insight during the start-up phase.”

For more information about the PopUp Business School Aotearoa, head  http://www.popupbusinessschool.nz/kapiti-coast.html

-KCDC

New location for Waikanae library services to open shortly

Improved library and customer services will be available to the Waikanae community from the beginning of July. 

“From 1 July 9 Mahara Place (formerly the Artel Gallery) will become the new location for Waikanae’s library and customer services for the next few years,” says Kāpiti Coast District Councillor Michael Scott.  

“It’s an exciting development for the community, offering library-goers more space, more books on the shelves, better IT facilities and a return to full Council customer services.  

“The Council was fortunate to be able to secure the premises which, as well as being in a central location, will also provide a much warmer, more pleasant environment for customers as the winter sets in.” 

Councillor Scott says the new library will be a welcome addition to the town centre as the Council’s improvements to Mahara Place head towards completion in early spring.  

“It’s been a busy year at the Waikanae town centre following the closure of the original library building and the ongoing construction works. Having full Council customer services and up-scaled library services available again to the community is a big step in returning to business as usual.”  

The Council’s pop-up library, which is currently housed in the Mahara Gallery, will be closed on Thursday and Friday (27 and 28 June) while the books and furniture are transferred into the new building.  

“I’d like to thank the Mahara Gallery team for hosting the pop-up while the Council worked on a solution for Waikanae’s library services. Libraries are at the heart of our communities and we’re grateful for their support in helping us to keep these essential services running for Waikanae.”      

The library will be open for business on 1 July at 10am. More information will be available on the Council’s website shortly.

-KCDC