Council adopts plan for Seabird Coast

Hauraki District Council has adopted its draft Wharekawa Coast 2120 Community Plan which will now head out for consultation.
The plan has been developed over the past three years in collaboration with the local community, Hauraki District Council, Waikato Regional Council, Waikato District Council, key stakeholders, and Ngāti Pāoa and Ngaati Whanaunga.
It comes after climate change and its possible “severe effects” were brought to councils’ attention, calling on local government organisations to “plan ahead” to minimise consequences and build community resilience.
In the Hauraki District Council’s 2018-28 Long Term Plan, the Wharekawa Coast was identified as an area that needed community planning, and was chosen as a pilot project.
The project area spans more than 20km, from Waharau to Pūkorokoro/Miranda, and has experienced severe coastal inundation and flooding, the most recent being during a storm event in January, 2018.
Often referred to locally as the Seabird Coast, council said it was the first place in the Hauraki district that saw the arrival of waka from Hawaiki.
At the September 27 meeting, councillors unanimously adopted the plan and applauded the staff members who worked on creating it.
“It’s great to see this evolving from the early days,” Waihī ward councillor Anne Marie Spicer said. “It’s come so far.”
Council’s next steps are to engage with the Wharekawa Coast community – dependent on its partner councils adopting the community plan – then, in early-to-mid November, a summary of community feedback will be presented to a joint working party.
By the end of November, council will be finalising the draft community plan.