Mangawhai's infrastructure needs to keep up with community's rapid development

Clive Boonham said adequate wastewater capacity and the provision of reticulated water in Mangawhai should top KDC'S priorities. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Infrastructure isn't keeping pace with rapid development in Mangawhai - one of New Zealand's fastest-growing coastal settlements - and community and business leaders are calling for action if the area is to thrive in the long term.

For them, wastewater capacity and red-tape bureaucracy around building consents are hampering development but the Kaipara District Council says a number of initiatives are
being undertaken or looked into to remedy the situation.

Mangawhai's treated wastewater disposal is almost at capacity and major increased demand for sewerage infrastructure is expected over the coming decade.

Chairman of the Mangawhai Business Association Alan Corkin said Mangawhai has had very high growth, and certainly more than in other areas.

The baby boomer generation, he said, has contributed strongly to that high growth for the past five years.

The approximate population of Mangawhai at the end of last year was 7000.

People are attracted to Mangawhai as it lacks issues seen in big cities; it's a convenient location still close enough to Auckland; it's coastal with a cheaper price tag meaning people could sell in Auckland for good money, buy there for a lot less, and still put some savings in the bank.

Corkin thought the infrastructure had kept up with the speed of development. The council had it under control, he said.

Mangawhai is the fastest- growing coastal settlement in New Zealand. Photo / Michael Cunningham

However, Corkin noted there were restrictions on what councils and people could do as per the relevant legislation.

Personally, he believed red-tape bureaucracy such as a review of the Resource Consent Act which the Government is planning, needs to be completely shaken up.

"I am not an expert but what I see standing out is the time it takes to get jobs done, the time it takes to get approvals, be they resource consents, building consents, that sort of thing.

"There's a need for consultation with the general public but I believe councils are elected to do a job and they should be allowed to get on with it. There should be a lot less restriction on them than there is at the moment," he said.

Corkin said Mangawhai has the capacity to grow but infrastructure would have to follow suit.

"It happens hand in hand, doesn't it? What they're [councils] trying to do these days is have more of the developers pay for infrastructure so the ratepayers don't have to directly pay for them. So that's a good thing."

He lived in Singapore where the government built roads, put drainage in and parks, and then over the next 10 years, he said, people built houses and factories and occupied the place — something that did not happen in New Zealand.

Former lawyer Clive Boonham has lived on Alamar Cres overlooking the Mangawhai Harbour and sand dunes since about 2009.

He said adequate wastewater capacity and the provision of reticulated water should be on top of the council's priorities.

There's no reticulated water in Mangawhai. Residents store stormwater in tanks.

Boonham was among a group of Mangawhai residents who fought the council through the courts over the cost blowout of the new wastewater treatment plant which he said was struggling to cope with the demand.

What was needed was for the council to get to the bare bones of the issues plaguing the present infrastructure and what it would take to fix it, Boonham claimed.

Proof of the coastal settlement's rising population could be seen at the local school.

Mangawhai Beach School's roll grew by about 300 in the last five years to currently sit at 577.

A population boom has seen Mangawhai Beach School's roll increase by 300 in the last five years alone. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The school management said it was coping well with the roll growth with the recent completion of a new 10-classroom block and another double story block was in the pipeline.

Beverley Ross has spent her entire 81 years in her birth town of Mangawhai. The Mangawhai Museum historian laments the fact passionate residents built public facilities for locals to enjoy, only for out-of-towners to swarm the area years later.

"There were just farmers' houses and three or four bachs at the Heads back then. The area began developing from 1990 onwards and now infrastructure cannot cope with the level of development.

"It's good for the developers but the infrastructure needs to be in place first. There's total bedlam during holidays. There were just 800 people in the whole of Mangawhai in 1990. In 1996, it went up to 1036 and look at the numbers now."

Beverley Ross has seen Mangawhai grow from just a few houses to being the fastest- growing coastal settlement in New Zealand. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Ross reminisced the good old days when she used to access the beach by walking across a farmer's land.

Ron Graham came up from King Country in 1996 to teach at Mangawhai Beach School which had a roll of just 150 students.

After about 16 years at the school, he decided to stay in Mangawhai to enable his son who was studying in Auckland to visit him during his holidays.

He too, like many others, are unhappy about a lack of infrastructure to support both existing and new developments.

"Changes like the one at Mangawhai Central development need infrastructure to be upgraded both at the village and at the Heads. During Christmas, it gets very busy," he said.

Kaipara mayor Jason Smith said his council's 30-year Infrastructure Plan, as the Spatial Plan, took into account growth such as that being undertaken in high-demand areas such as Mangawhai.

He got a confirmation from the New Zealand Transport Agency this week that the government agency would fund Phase 2 of the Mangawhai Shared Path which will include a bridge across the causeway.

On the wastewater capacity, he said the council has held a number of meetings in the past two months to discuss options that included discharging treated wastewater to the settlement's golf course.

Wastewater would be pumped from the Mangawhai sewage treatment plant to a 500- cubic-metre, green steel holding tank in the golf club carpark and spread out at night.

He said the council also wanted to boost its wastewater discharge capacity at Brown Rd farm, about 10km south of Mangawhai, where the material is spread across the land.

"Look at the Mangawhai Central development and other large developments are also coming through so the Kaipara District Council is preparing for a number of options in terms of planning for those developments," Smith said.