There was a good attendance at a public meeting/workshop held at the Owaka Memorial Hall on Tuesday 1 April to discuss landscaping plans for the town.
The meeting/workshop was organised by Owaka Going Forward, the local community committee which plans to enhance the township as directed by the community.
Proposed landscaping plans have been on public display for the past two months and Tuesday’s meeting/workshop was an opportunity for the community to let Owaka Going Forward know its thoughts.
Owaka Going Forward Chairwoman Aileen Clarke said that there was a diverse group of about 40 people in attendance who showed some real passion regarding the ideas proposed to date.
Mrs Clarke said the workshop involved groups writing down their ideas on the landscaping proposals presented. The responses will now be collated and given to the landscape architect to present a plan that best represents the wishes of the general community.
The landscaping plan would then become part of Council’s Draft Reserve Management Plan for Owaka which would go back out for another round of public consultation in June 2014. This process is the reason why it has taken so long to get to this point.
Mrs Clarke said that while there was a thorough process to go through, the Owaka Going Forward Committee wanted to ensure the enhancements best represented the community’s vision, and with as little impact as possible on ratepayers.
Owaka Going Forward was formed after a series of six public workshops back in the winter of 2012. At these workshops it was decided that the Waka would be the identity/theme of the town and that the entranceways to Owaka required enhancement. It was also identified at the time that the township had no Reserve Management Plan in place to guide Council and to secure the use of the reserve areas as the community wanted.
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