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YNZ National Sailing Centre Poll


National Sailing Centre  

44 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you support the new YNZ National Sailing Center idea (no set location)

    • Yes
      31
    • No
      13
  2. 2. Should it be at

    • Takapuna Beach, replacing the motorcamp
      10
    • Somewhere else
      34
  3. 3. If it should be somewhere else, do you have any suggestions?

    • No
      30
    • Yes, and I've relied to the thread with my ideas!
      14


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I heard a comment that they are not to be aligned with any one club.

 

To me Okahu Bay always seemed a better choice, way more parking than Takapuna & easy launching.

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not to mention more central, pretty much at the end of the three highest volume motorways in country, next door to the port (for now :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: ) easy public transport access from Brotomart, settling fetch for the prevailing SW.  Ah well.  The planning drawings do look good though

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Nice poll. I am not making any friends at Murray's Bay with my stand on this, but for me, locating this centre at the Taka ramp is beyond dumb and not making yachting any friends. The motor camp really is a Kiwi gem that is used by thousands of people from both NZ and overseas. I have seen figures of $7M spent annually by tourists visiting the caravan park and the council gets rent of $160,000 a year. YNZ have negotiated this to $1 a year. 

Adding to that is significant skulduggery by YNZ/HAT (A trust set up to take away the heat from YNZ) stating that this is a "Community marine centre". Is it bollocks. It's a yachting centre. Also YNZ have backed off from making it their headquarters but the new facility will still have meeting and conference rooms, so you can see what will happen in the future!! YNZ just slides in there when it's all a done deal. If it is really a "Community Marine Centre" Then I guess there will be ample fish cleaning and filleting benches, regularly emptied bins for fish waste, wash down facilities for outboards etc etc, because the biggest users of Takapuna ramp are, by a long, long shot, the Fishos..

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between the hard stand, boat ramp, moored boats and the busy new marina

 

okahu seems to be running at capacity 

 

when major dinghy sailing events are held on weekends the traffic gridlock around the ramp gets chaotic with jack-knifed fishing boats trailers trying to get around dingy dollies while crews are excited rigging, talking and mooring 5 ribs at the ends of the finger dock

 

toss in commercial operators running school kayak programs from the same ramp, chinese tour buses stopping to use it as a scenic toilet stop and a few taxis parked up waiting for calls 

 

i don't think there is room to grow a permanent performance sailing centre out of okahu

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There are plenty of available yachting clubs in Auckland already with excellent facilities that would welcome Yachting NZ as a tenant, or just to share their building and training facilities. I believe the offer has been made on more than one occasion. 

Why then waste an iconic green space for the hell of it. The boat ramp is already congested with pleasure boats and parking at a premium. Plus, if it is to be a true 'community' facility', which it isn't, where is the fish filleting and wash down area. Access to a toilet doesn't make it a 'community facility'.

Come on council, swallow some pride and reject  this ridiculous notion. If promises have been made in the past, man up and admit your mistake. Forcing this through to save face is boring and juvenile. Represent the people who put you in power. The majority by a huge margin say NO.

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Council submissions are currently open and run till 13 April.  Submissions are here:

http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/ratesbuildingproperty/consents/getinvolved/Pages/currentpubliclynotifiedconsents.aspx

(scroll down till you see Harbour Access Trust)

 

HOW TO MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION OPPOSING THE RESOURCE CONSENT APPLICATION FOR THE YACHTING NZ BUILDING

It is important that in order for your submissions to be formally considered by the Hearing Committee, they must relate to any actual or potential effects on the environment caused by this activity. If you have already made a submission on the merits of the holiday park, that is great, they will be read and recorded, but if your partner/husband/wife/friend hasn’t yet made a submission, you might like to encourage them to make a submission and include some of the objections below. If you haven’t made a submission yet, then there is plenty of material here for you to work with.

You might like to choose one or more of these major issues and elaborate on them. As you will discover, the submission form only allows you to enter 500 characters, which won’t be enough, but you can attach a Word document to further your argument. You’ll want to use your own words and add your own reasons as well, but here are some ideas. You might:

• Oppose the construction of permanent buildings for private purposes on a reserve now used entirely for public purposes (the campground being a public campground). A public reserve must be available to the public at all times . The public will not be able to access the Yachting NZ building at all times (apart from the public toilet, presumably).

• Oppose the application on the grounds that it will permanently compromise the remainder of the reserve. For example, there is capacity for at least 250 laser type yachts, 24 waka and at least 150 other smaller craft in the covered and uncovered storage areas designed. This means that if half of the laser sailing boats were taken out to be rigged they would consume most of the grass area. If only some of these boats were put in the water, imagine the congestion. A member of Takapuna Boating Club has confirmed that they already have to launch from the beach because of congestion at the ramp.

• Request an independent legal review to confirm whether it is legal for the Council to allow HAT to have use of the land and lease it to YNZ because once the building has been constructed, HAT could decide to on-sell it or lease it to another party in the future and the public will lose all access altogether.

• Oppose the application on the grounds that the movement of boats directly in front of the café on route to the boat ramp will create further congestion and safety hazards in an area that already has heavy foot traffic and will pose a risk to pedestrians, including children, who wander between the café and the grassed areas.

• Oppose the misleading description of the proposals which are not in reality a “community marine activity hub”. The only thing that anyone without a key can enter will be the toilet block.

• Express concern over the large number of sail boats likely to use the boat ramp and the potential for chaos and accidents. There has always been an unwritten agreement between the fishing community and the sailing fraternity that powerboats used the ramp and sail boats used the beach. There is simply not enough capacity at the ramp for the increased traffic, especially when you consider the boat storage capacity of the marine activity hub.

• Oppose the removal of 38 trees (especially Pohutukawas) because the likelihood of them surviving root severing and transplanting is doubtful.

• Oppose the works being carried out within the root zone of Pohutukawas because of the potential for damage or total destruction of the trees.

• Oppose the 5,000 cm of earthworks proposed to be carried within the sediment control protection area because of potential long-term damage (a maximum of 2,500 cm only of earthworks is allowed under the Reserves Act).

• Oppose the application on the grounds of inadequate provision of parking; the application has a shortfall of 11 parking spaces. If the building is used as planned, parking will be required for 20 staff and even if only half of the boats are used then parking will be required for 200 crews. This means that even on a good day the picnicking, beach-going and boating public will be effectively excluded from the park.

• Oppose the construction of the building on the grounds that it does not comply with the required 5m yard requirement on the Alison Avenue frontage.

HERE'S THE LINK TO MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION:
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/…/currentpubliclynotifie…

Then click on 'Make a Submission'. All the details you need are on the first page you visited, but we have repeated them below as you might find it easier to cut and paste from here:

Name of Applicant: Harbour Access Trust

Who Proposes To: Harbour Access Trust has applied for resource consent for a Community Marine Activity Hub, located at the northern end of Takapuna Beach

Application Site Address from the Public Notice: 22 The Promenade, Takapuna

Application Numbers: LCO-2140694; REG-2140695; REG-2140696; REG-2140847

Applicant's Email Address: markb@mhg.co.nz

Location of the site: North Shore

Main Area to which the application relates: Resource Consents, District Issues

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The poll/vote thingy doesn't work. Obviously when I tried voting No to question 1, questions 2 and 3 become irrelevant so I didn't click them, but the system displays 'Oops there seems to be a problem with your answers'. 

 

Anyways.

Someone earlier did somewhat sound out my own initial thought when I read the news release for YNZ. I wondered too why can't YNZ take advantage of some of the existing building infrastructure. Just about every club has a wonderful water front property, and most are under utilised (and some are even empty). Heaps of clubs have leased out/established (or are trying to) some sort of cafe/bar operation so that rental helps to cover the significantly increasing costs of their ageing buildings.

 

We've seen the rationalisation of many sports clubs. For example in the Hutt Valley the number of rugby clubs have diminished as they've had to merge. But as a result the old clubhouses they used are abandoned, and become a cost to rate payer as they are invariably built on Council land. Avalon Park for example has two basically empty club houses from clubs that merged and effectively ceased in the last 5 years. Just up the road at Naenae Park the club house of the old Naenae Club still stands proudly.

 

But my point is that many sports clubs are really struggling, and sailing is no exception. So this same rationalisation will occur as it has in mainstream sports. The really sad aspect of course is in little towns where there is only a single club and it closes. I'll cite the example of the Featherston Yachting Club. Technically it still exists, but no one has sailed out of there for years. The clubhouse beside Lake Wairarapa is all boarded up and the Council fights a graffiti war.

 

In Wellington, I've no doubt that there will have to be a merger of clubs in the next few years.

 

So I don't see that building yet another shrine in Auckland will help the real problems at ground level around the country.

 

Another aspect is that for these elite sailors, well they're professionals, so why should tax payers and sailing subscriptions subsidise them?

 

 

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Didn't they propose a plan approx. 10 years ago to join with Torbay Sailing Club, by raising the building to gain the office space etc, and base out of there. I'm sure Andrew Brown was the leader on this. 

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The background to some of the weirdness: The chair, Joseph Bergin, actually _FAILED_ to be elected to the board; he got there by default after another board member [ Chris Darby(?) ] became a full councillor.

I'm reasoning that he believes he owes nothing to the public, has no expectation of being elected in 2016 (if he bothers to stand) - and is therefore free to do favours to whomever, with nothing to lose.

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