Please consider signing our petition to the TDC to preserve and protect Waterfront Park as a park, playground, family picnic BBQ area for all locals and to prohibit the construction of powerboat trailer launching ramps and parking facilities over any part of Waterfront Park. Your voice and the voice of your children, extended family and friends counts…and it needs to be heard. The future of the character of our Village is at stake here – let’s not get it wrong again. Check out our Google Map page to see progress to date in petitioner locations around NZ, and the world!
Enjoy the music and pictures in the following video.
WE are a diverse group of residents of the Ruby Bay Coast that share a love for our village, the Wharf, Mapua Waterfront Park , the Mapua lagoon and the north arm of the Waimea Estuary. Check out the images below. Inspirational.
We want the voices of those of us who love the tranquility, the natural beauty of this portion of our foreshore and estuary, the recreational play opportunities for cycling, walking , swimming non-powered water craft , playgrounds, BBQ and picnic areas , the amphitheatre for more concerts , music, play- and of course good coffee and great food and drink! – to be heard as the TDC develops its short and long term management plans for the next few decades.
Our positive agenda is to keep and protect as much of the foreshore and greenspaces of Mapua for the public. We are fortunate to live at the centre of the Great Taste Cycling Trail , a short ferry ride away from one of the greatest undeveloped beachfront parks anywhere in the world – Rabbit Island, have two wonderful (but under threat) forehsore park areas – Waterfront Park and Grossi Point , and have low-tide walking access to tens of km’s of coastal lagoon and foreshore , from Grossi Point right up to Kina and beyond! The opportunities for healthy active living for all ages are fantastic . Young kids whiz around on their scooters between the Golden Bear , Alberta’s and the Jellyfish , in and out of the new planters outside the Rimu Wine bar, the Smokehouse and the Appleshed . Older folk, a little less mobile, use their walkers or friends , to enable them to stroll out to the Wharf or down along the promenade in front of the amphitheatre.
All of us locals, and many visitors from around NZ, look forward to planning and fund raising to improve the pedestrian access and friendliness of the social “commons” that is the combination of the Wharf and Waterfront park . Plans are being conceived and developed for a playground (hopefully special needs children inclusive- see our post on this topic here ), picnic tables, a gas BBQ facility, recreational options like draughts, petanque, and tai chi/yoga/fitness stations. Why not more concerts/music/dance using the amphitheatre- it is wired for sound and has a natural backdrop the envy of any outdoor amphitheatre in the world. We will have to develop these resources ourselves, individually and as a community, fund raising , working bees, taking things in stages – not being a financial burden on the ratepayers of Tasman or a cash strapped TDC.
While we stand together for clean-green-people friendly spaces and places on the foreshore, we also stand together against any proposal to develop public access , concrete , powerboat ramps/parking in or along our waterfront park.
There is a small but vocal and well-organized power-boat lobby in the region that is in fact trying to do just that. So we need to be larger and as vocal ourselves to spread our gospel. The squeaky wheel gets the grease in local politics as politicians seek to minimize adverse public attention, no matter what the merits of alternative proposals. The 2015 MDCA December meeting about the closure of the boat ramp at the Wharf, and the subsequent suppression of MDCA waterfront park proposal through all of 2016, shows how easy it is for a good community initiative to get crowded out. We have to organize, and publicize – hence this website – to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
There is no doubt that on any independent assessment and calculation of value added , investments in Mapua in greenspace , recreational space, and foreshore access now and in the future would far outstrip value added from a powerboat launching ramp in the heart of Mapua. It’s not just in the numbers – although that is important. We’re talking thousands of local residents, tens of thousands of Nelson Tasman residents, and the tens of thousands of visitors to Mapua who show up for leisure and pleasure compared to a special interest group of powerboat owners numbering perhaps 100+. But it is also, and as importantly , in the distribution of this value – serving “value” to across the entire social spectrum old or young, rich or poor, vs serving the interests of a small special interest group of local boaties. From the elderly senior with a walker and their grandchild along the promenade, or the 5 year old crawling through a tunnel while their family makes a picnic lunch or has Smokehouse fish and chips; the 30 somethings who love power walking – or the 50 somethings (30 somethings at heart!) just strolling mornings and evenings – from Grossi point through to the Wharf, “dwelling” in a foreshore undisturbed by motorized transport . Everyone can enjoy parks. Only a select few with substantial investments in powerboats and trailers get to enjoy powerboat launching ramps. [And when you consider that our region already has (and has planned for the future for) three readily accessible alternatives with terrific launching facilities , 2 at Rabbit Island and 1 in Motueka, where exactly is the net benefit? ]
The question is : will that calculation and assessment be made? It won’t, if we don’t get our voice heard.
So please consider joining us , if only to help spread the word. But we will need a petition to bring before TD Councillors – as the TDC is fast tracking the entire Mapua waterfront development process.
