54ha of public park in pipeline

Whangarei will soon boast a new 54-hectare public park minutes from the city centre.
The Whangarei District Council has formally adopted a Pohe Island management plan that creates a huge public reserve beside Riverside Dr.
The reserve has been created from William Fraser Memorial Park and the land left after the closing of the Pohe Island Landfill. The plan becomes operative on March 31.
Whangarei Mayor Pamela Peters explained, "The council sees this as a wonderful chance for a park right next to Whangarei Harbour. This is a hugely visionary thing for a council to be going ahead with."
The move comes as the Auckland City Council struggles with what to do with a 35-hectare former fuel storage depot on that city's waterfront. Vigorous debate in Auckland has led to that council receiving 650 submissions on what should be done.
"Auckland is having strong debate about what to do with its tank farm and it is really significant we are doing this," Mrs Peters said. "The history of that site is fascinating and we need to get those stories out."
Having the area as reserve would not prevent the building of a bridge from the reserve to the Port Rd area, as set down in the council's long-term plans. Such a bridge is expected to cost up to $20million and handle up to 25,000 vehicles a day.
Mrs Peters said while she was pleased to be the mayor when the park plan came to fruition, she gave credit to previous councils. "This is really significant for a district of this size. I can't think of any other provincial city doing something like this," she said. "The significance of this is that we have put this in place after a thorough consultative process. And it's there forever. It's a really special place next to the harbour that is going to be a wonderful long-term asset to the district."
One issue that remained was what to name the reserve. Talks between the council and descendants of the Pohe and Fraser families were continuing over that.
One proposal is to call the reserve Pohe Island with the "active" portion of the reserve, including a sports field, skate park and BMX track, to be known as William Fraser Park. Any name proposal will go back to the council for discussion.
Possible future features on Pohe Island could include a cycleway linking to a proposed Onerahi-to-city cycleway, a dog park and more sports fields.
The reserve already includes the Madhatters soccer club, a skate park, BMX track, Sea Scouts, rowing club and the Whangarei Rock and Roll Club.
A 115-berth marina is being proposed from the eastern edge of Pohe Island to Kissing Pt.
While the area is now very much attached to the rest of Whangarei, council plans from 1907 show ``Pohe Island'' as a real island surrounded by mudflats that were covered at high tide. Today's area was created after 1930 when stopbanks were put in and land reclaimed.