Plans and Strategies

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Coastal Strategy

The Coastal Strategy sets a guiding image or picture of what the community wants the coastal environment to look like in 20 years time. The strategy brings together knowledge from local communities of their landscape and their visions for its future.

The vision of the Coastal Strategy is: “New Plymouth District’s coast ... A prosperous, growing coastal community, balancing the needs of people and environment within our high energy untamed coast.”

The vision means that in 2025 New Plymouth District’s coastal environment will be:

• A prospering rural, energy, port and tourism-based diverse economy.
• A district where development aspirations are balanced with a strong desire to retain and enhance natural character and the unique sense of place of its distinct communities and the Taranaki lifestyle.
• A unique, peaceful and fun place that is connected and accessible to all.
• A high energy, natural place that shapes our diverse cultural values.
• Clean and welcoming where the mountain and sea are symbolic of our home.

Key directions for the coastal environment
As part of developing the vision we have identified eight key strategic directions for the coastal environment. These are:

Population Growth: Encourage growth and strategically guide development in a manner that respects the natural and cultural values and provides for appropriate lifestyle development.

Sense of Place: Enhance the essence of the local communities and balance against the needs of the environment.

Infrastructure: Promote integrated infrastructure provision in a manner that compliments visions and goals and is compatible with natural, cultural and social values.

Economic Development: Encourage sustainable economic growth that is based on dominant productive factors such as high-quality arable land, a conducive growing climate, natural resources and high quality living environment.

Recreation and Open Space: Promote and ensure that the coastal environment is a place to explore and experience that is connected and accessible to all the district.

Mana Whenua: The tangata whenua role as kaitiaki is understood, supported and implemented so that different management processes complement each other and enhance the coastal areas of New Plymouth District.

Coastal Hazards: Avoid hazard areas, protect natural buffers and take a sustainable approach to hazards and risk to create more informed, resilient and secure coastal communities.

Environment: Protect and enhance the natural environment and outstanding landscape values whilst providing for appropriate growth and development.Return to top

Mana Whenua Mana Moana
The Mana Whenua Mana Moana Paper was prepared by the Mana Whenua Reference Group for input into the New Plymouth Coastal Strategy. It highlights the importance of the coastal environment from the mana whenua perspective, by describing its history and values through stories. The paper also sets a direction for the future use and protection of the coast as desired by mana whenua.  Elements of Mana Whenua Mana Moana were considered when developing the Coastal Strategy.

• Mana Whenua Mana Moana (70 pages 2MB PDF)

What now?
The Coastal Strategy was adopted in April 2006.

• Coastal Strategy Parts 1-2 (12 pages 865 KB PDF)
• Coastal Strategy Parts 3-6 (22 pages 1.7MB PDF)
• Coastal Strategy Parts 7.1-7.4 (15 pages 1.1MB PDF)
• Coastal Strategy Parts 7.5-7.7 10 pages (2.3MB PDF)
• Coastal Strategy Parts 7.8-9 (12 pages 1.5MB PDF)

The key priority is to implement the Coastal Strategy into day-to-day decision making processes to ensure that activities and decisions made in relation to the coast are consistent with the vision for the Coastal Strategy.  

We will also be focusing on implementing the key actions in the Coastal Strategy.  There are over 100 actions in the Coastal Strategy that have been prioritised over the next 20 years.  Implementing the Coastal Strategy is something we will be doing with its key partners who also influence how we manage the coast. 

The Implementation Plan (updated in February 2008) gives an update on progress. This plan will be updated annually.

• Coastal Strategy Implementation Plan (February 2008) (22 pages 302KB PDF)

Structure plans
Under the wider framework of the Coastal Strategy, and after two rounds of consultation we have developed two structure plans – one for Oakura and one for Urenui. The structure plans will shape the future of these communities over the next 20 years and provide for areas of residential expansion, recreation and coastal hazards management.

• Oakura Structure Plan (32 pages 2MB PDF)
• Oakura map (One page 654KB PDF) 
• Urenui Structure Plan (28 pages 2MB PDF)
• Urenui map (One page 320KB PDF)

Implementation plans for the Oakura Structure Plan and the Urenui Structure Plan were developed in February 2008.

• Oakura Implementation Plan (13 pages 259KB PDF)
• Urenui Implementation Plan (7 pages 227KB PDF)
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