Mapua’s fate is now in the hands of Council
It is Monday night. Mapua Hall is bursting at its seams. Mainly older village folks, but also some of Tasman District Council’s councillors, squeeze into the community hall to find out more about the future of Mapua – to receive an update on the work-in-progress Mapua Design Guide.
Mapua’s residents have pleaded for years with the Council to protect their village’s character, which they feel is threatened by development. TDC has now appointed Ian Munro, an independent Auckland-based urban designer, to distill the essence of what it is that makes Mapua special. In order to do this, Ian has asked residents to fill in an extensive questionnaire about Mapua’s broader setting, its streets, its buildings, parks and any other defining features that might be the source of residents’ pride – distinctive features that should be perpetuated through the Mapua Design Guide.
Show time! Jeremy Butler, TDC’s Urban and Rural Policy Team Leader, is running the slide show and taking notes. Ian leads us through the responses. What will people have nominated?
As it turns out, it isn’t really any specific building design feature that gets people excited about Mapua. People like the eclectic mix, the creativity, the ramshackle and cobbled-together nature of some habitations. They detest the monotonous repetition of the invariably large houses that were recently added to the village and they hate big-box commercial buildings taking hold on the edge of the village. Residents demand smaller houses, houses that are easier to maintain and houses that are more affordable, recognising that younger people are not really represented in the sample of the village population currently present at Mapua Hall.
It’s not the street design either. Yes, people like street trees and greenery – and they want more of it. People like front yards and they prefer to see trees rather than buildings. But on the whole, there doesn’t seem to be any particular design element about Mapua’s streetscapes that defines the village’s character.
It was instinctive and with overwhelming consensus that residents pinned Mapua’s village feel on two things and Ian validates their view with his professional assessment: the village scale and its connection to the surrounding landscape are of utmost importance – and both are under threat.
Mapua is scheduled to absorb more growth than any other community in Tasman, relatively speaking. And currently on the list for fast-tracking by central government is an extensive 320 lot residential subdivision and wetland development at Seaton Valley, occupying a lovingly planted smallholding and rolling green paddocks that connect the village to its picturesque countryside.
TDC supported the project’s acceptance into the fast-track process through its Nelson Tasman Future Development Strategy (FDS), a document that identifies Mapua as a growth node and includes Seaton Valley for residential greenfield development. This strategy has been tirelessly contested by the Mapua community and other groups that challenge its heavy reliance on greenfield growth. Having been generated through a “special consultative procedure of the Local Government Act”, the FDS is politically charged and its evidence-base or findings have never been professionally scrutinised.
The Seaton Valley development proposal still needs to clear the fast-track expert panel. However, should the project be accepted, then there would be no recourse for the Mapua community, there would be no legal avenue and no way to revert this decision.
Mapua’s residents took a liking to Ian Munro. “He’s actually LISTENING!”, someone exclaimed to me afterwards. “This is the difference between a design-led approach and ‘drawing by numbers’”, I responded. “Unfortunately we have had too much of the latter from TDC’s planning team.”
There is a real risk that no matter how good Ian’s Design Guide will be, it may not have any tangible effect if greenfield developments at Seaton Valley go ahead. Not only would these developments undermine the character of the village, market economics would also see most, if not all, investments funnelled into this new subdivision – there would be very little appetite left for any small-scale regeneration or revitalisation of the village proper.
Hearing Ian Munro’s compelling expert advice, highlighting scale and connection to its landscape as the fundamental conditions that define Mapua’s character, I cannot help but push Jeremy Butler on the question whether TDC would take any action from this. “Will someone at TDC pick up the phone and talk to the Ministry for the Environment to say, ‘We’ve made a mistake. The development at Seaton Valley is actually not supported by the community. Please take the project off the fast-track list!’” It appears that this decision ultimately lies with TDC’s governance, the Mayor and the Councillors. Let’s hope that they too listen.
Timo Neubauer is a Hope-based urban designer and small business owner. He is a mayoral candidate for Tasman in this year’s local government elections.