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    • Plimmerton Farm: getting greenfields right
      • If we’re hellbent on doing more residential development in greenfields, what does “decent” look like in Plimmerton, hilly land near an existing suburb – like most of our region’s greenfields? This post is basically a guide for anyone who cares about Plimmerton, good urban development, or healthy wetlands, streams and coast, but is time-poor and can’t face going through the truckloads of documents they’ve stuck up without any specific meta-guidance (some FAQ are here). Hopefully this will help you pop in a submission! PCC’s “information” pages they suggest you use for submitting. Every one of these is a large PDF document, 90% written in technical language… aargh! The background: what where and how For those who don’t know, Plimmerton Farm’s a big proposed subdivision of hilly farmland draining into the significant Taupō Wetland and to Plimmerton Beach, just over the train line and highway from Plimmerton village (original Ngāti Toa name: Taupō). It’s going through a Streamlined Planning Process, a pre-COVID government scheme for accelerating development. The key step is the requisite change of the land’s zoning in the Porirua District Plan (“rural” zone to “residential” and other “urban” zones) that sets out what kind of stuff can then be built, where. It’s mostly streamlined because there’s just one shot for the public to have input on the plan change. One shot. Why submit? I was born and raised in Plimmerton, live here now, and intend to for the rest of my days. I’d love to see it grow, well. I would love Plimmerton to get more wallets, more hearts and minds, more faces (more diverse ones too!). But not with more traffic, and pointless damage to our environment. Right now, the proposal has some serious flaws which need sorting. I say Sorting because the changes won’t make it crazy innovative, just good enough for a development in the spot it is, being kicked off in 2020. Time matters too: there’a a bunch of good things happening imminently (and some bad Porirua trends that need to be reversed). I cover these in Get it right, below. It’s worth submitting because given the situation, a 1990s-grade development just won’t cut it. So what about Plimmerton Farm needs to change? It boils down to two themes: dial down the driveability and dial up the liveabilitymake Local the logical and easy choice for daily needs I’ll outline what needs to change in each. NOTE: There’s a third – don’t stuff the wetlands and streams. This is really important as Taupō Wetland is regionally significant, and all our streams and harbours have suffered from frankly shameful mismanagement of sediment from earthworks-heavy subdivisions like Aotea and Duck Creek, and from the earthworks-a-rama of Transmission Gully. Friends of Taupo Swamp have an excellent submission guide for you – add in some of their suggested bits to your submission. I: Dial down the driveability, dial up the liveability There aren’t many truly black-and-white things in life, but there’s one for towns: If a street is nice to drive in, it’ll be a crappy place to do anything else in (walk / eat / hang out / have a conversation / play / scoot or cycle / shop / have a pint). If it’s nice to do anything else in, it’ll be a crappy place to drive in. Mostly this is because of the nature of the automobile: big solid things that smash into our soft bodies if someone makes a mistake (75% odds of death if that’s at 50km/hour, 10% odds of death if at 30km/hour) big objects that need lots of space for manoeuvering and especially parking – which offstreet can be crazy expensive and push up the cost of a home, and onstreet hoover up valuable public space. big solid things driven by us real humans (for a while at least) who respond to the environment but also get distracted, and generally aren’t good at wielding these big solid things safely. The transport setup proposed for Plimmerton Farm makes for a much too driveable and poorly liveable place. 1. Narrow down all the roads. The current proposal’s roading setup has roads and streets that are too big, and there’s too much of them. Right sized roads for a liveable community The cross-sections for the roads include on-street parking and really wide lane widths. This is really gobsmacking for a consortium that talked a big talk about good practice. For all the reasons that Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are good, this is bad. (And it’s especially nuts when you realise that the excessively wide “arterial” roads (11 metres!) will need earthworked platforms built for them where they’re drawn running up the sharp ridges and across the tops of gullies. Expensive, damaging for the environment, and … what were they thinking?) So recommended changes: NARROW DOWN THE ROADS. Seriously. Design all the living-area streets and roads, and the centre, to be self-explaining for an operating traffic speed of 30km or less – that’s the speed where mistakes are rarely fatal. What does that look like? The designers will know and if they don’t they should be fired. Narrower crossing distances; chicanes (great way to incorporate green infrastructure and trees and seating!); narrowed sight-lines (trees! sculpture!) so no-one driving feels inclined to zoom. Reduced trafficked lanes (rori iti on the larger roads!), with properly wide and friendly footpaths. Threshold treatments, humps, modal filters, all the things we know very well are the natural ways to slow us down when driving, and make streets nicer for people. The beauty of all this “restriction” on driving is how much it frees us up for making everything else appealing. Streets become hospitable for kids to walk, scoot, bike to school safely, using the road not the footpath. Older people and those with impairments can walk and wheelchair safely. Teens coming home from town of an evening can scoot or bike home, safely. Popping down to the shops or for a coffee or to the train becomes a pleasure to do on foot, or on a scooter or bike. And you’re moving in a legitimate way – seeing and being seen, not stuck off in the bush on a “recreational” track like what they’ve described. The ordinary streets and roads are walkable, bikeable, scootable, mobility-scootable, and perfectly driveable, equally safe and useable in all weathers and anytime of day or night. Used to be a big, fast road. Now, kids bike to school and old people can chill out on it. (Mark Kerrison) (And in case you’re worried about firetrucks / rubbish trucks / buses, recall that on even Wellington City’s far more winding, narrower hilly streets everyone gets their rubbish collected and fires fought just fine. On public transport, smaller buses, like those that community transport operators use, are the way of the future for less densely-populated areas like this). Don’t build the through and loop roads. You don’t need signs like this when the only people who bother to drive in are those who live there, or who are visiting friends, because you just have to drive out again the way you came. When it’s the place you live, you’re invested in not being a dick far more than if you’re just out for a drive – or worse, out for a bit of a boyrace hoon on a massive loop route through a whole place. So just don’t build those big connector roads that enable people to drive easily from one residential area to the next, especially the ones up in the hilltops (section C) that just say “come for a hoon!” Instead, connect the living spaces heavily with bikeable, walkable, scootable, disability-friendly streets and lanes, and as much as possible, only one way in and out for cars from each living area. II: Make local logical and easy Plimmerton is a true village, with a great little centre (including a train station!) but Plimmerton Farm is ultimately a damn big area. The way to go is to enable people to get the basics of life – like school, groceries, a coffee – with a little local trip on foot, bike or scooter – it’s more of a bother to get in the car. Right now though, it needs two changes: 1. Provide for a second centre “Bumping into” spaces are known to be crucial to a feeling of neighbourhood, and in the (initial) absence of third places (worship places, community hall, sports club, cafe/pub, a supermarket is a vital social centre. Yet the north end of Plimmerton Farm is currently a deadzone for anything except residential. What things will probably look like under current layout. Like in Edwards Scissorhands without the interest of a castle. There’s no provision for a place to do your household groceries, so people will drive to Mana New World – more car trips – and less opportunity to bump into people who live nearby. (There’ll be no school in Plimmerton Farm for a while, because Ministry of Education isn’t allowed by the Education Act to build a school somewhere until there’s a certain population density of kids to fill it. A shitty Catch-22 for developments which is hopefully going to be fixed … sometime. Just another reason to make walking, biking and scooting really kid-friendly, as extra dropoff traffic for kids going to St Theresa’s, Plimmerton School, Paremata and Pukerua Bay schools will be a nightmare.) So they should provide for an additional centre in the north, including a groceries place of some kind. 2. Intensify within walking distance of Plimmerton proper. We should intensify properly, with lots of medium and even some high density (6 storeys of nicely laid-out density done well!) in the area that’s within a 5-minute walk of Plimmerton Village. The more people can live and work with access to all its many amenities, and its rail station (10 min to Porirua, 30 min to Wellington), the better. But there’s not enough density provided for there. Plimmerton Railway station: buzzing in 1916 and has only got bigger. (Photo: Pātaka Porirua Museum) So they should add another zone – E – of higher density in that 5-minute walking catchment of Plimmerton Village. What could it look like? A good example is 3333 Main, Vancouver . Submission tips On the site they ask you to fill in a Word or PDF form, saying which specific bit of the gazillion proposals you are talking about and the specific changes you want. This is a BS way to treat the vast majority of people submitting: normal non-professionals, just regular people who care about good development and liveable places. So just don’t worry about that. In those question 6 column boxes just put “Transport” and “Layout”. It’s the professional planners’ job to figure out specifically how to change a planning document. Just be specific enough that they know what you want to see. The text above is worth copying and pasting – it’ll be enough. And don’t forget the Friends of Taupo Swamp and Catchment advice is essential – definitely go read and use. That’s all you really need – just go submit! But if you’re keen to know more reasons why they should be doing this better, here’s some… Get it right, now Once this plan change is through, traditional developers like Gillies like to whack in all the infrastructure – hello, massive earthworks. And yet the place will take decades to fill with actual people – those hearts and minds and wallets. (Note even before COVID, Porirua’s growth rate was 0.1% per year. Yep, one tenth of one percent.) And extra pressure’s on to do this better because all these things are features of the next one to three years: the One Network Road Classification (sets the design specs for roads of different types) is being updated right now to be more people-friendly in the specs for roads in residential and centre areas, so designs like Plimmerton Farm’s will soon be Officially Bad Practice Sales and riding of e-bikes and e-scooters are going through the roof, continuing through and beyond COVID – this shows no signs of slowing, and prices are dropping. E-power flattens the hills of Plimmerton Farm and makes wheely active travel a breeze for the middle-class people who’ll be living here, if the streets and roads are hospitablePlimmerton Railway Station (on the most popular Wellington train line) is being upgraded to be a terminus station – i.e. better servicesThe Wellington Regional Growth Framework is setting a bunch of directions for councils on how to grow well, including well-known but often well-ignored issues like intensifying around public transport hubs Councils will soon be required to do to a bunch of a bunch of international good practice including get rid of many minimum parking requirements (in the news lately), and to upzone (enable intensification) of landuse in the walking catchment of public transport hubs. (5 min walk = approx 400 metres, 10 min = 800m).Bad trends we need to stop: Porirua’s really high car-dependency (we own cars a lot and drive a lot) is continuing, due to car-dependent urban form [PDF]– despite nice words in council’s strategic intentions.People living outside Wellington City are mostly to blame for our region’s 14% increase in emissions from transport in just 10 years. OK go submit now – and share with anyone who you think might care!
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      • Transmission Gully Motorway, Kenepuru, Porirua, Porirua City, Wellington, 5022, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • October Newsletter
      • In this month’s newsletter:     Wellington DH Series Rd 1 Report - Long Gully Upcoming WDHS Races - Karori & Maidstone Long Gully Start Ramp Retired South Coast Kids Track receives Regional Community Award   8Wired, Bruhaus & WMTBC present Ales for Trails Trail Building Updates Chance to see “Rad Company” on the Big Screen T-Shirt Orders Wellington Downhill Series Round 1 – Long Gully Matt Walker styles is up on the way to taking out the Pro Elite win. Photo: Dave Preece/Big Design. The first race in the Wellington Downhill Series went down Saturday 11th October at Long Gully – and what a day. The race doubled as the second round of the NZ Downhill Series, so the field was stacked. All up about 140 riders took to the hill including a strong contingent from out of town and uncharacteristically for Wellington – the weather was hospitable, creating impeccable conditions for racing at the infamous Gully.   Top spots in the Pro Elite category went to Matt Walker, Louis Hamilton and Wyn Masters respectively, demonstrating the calibre of competition on the day. In other categories – Wellington’s Oceania Champ Sarah Atkin took out Open Women, and in Open Men – Lloyd Jenks snuck into 5th narrowly ahead of Jourdan Lethbridge in 6th. In Under 15 – the Hutt Valley’s Lachie McDonald took 8 seconds out of the competition, and Wellington dominated Masters 30+ and 40+ with Derek Winwood and Ali Quinn in top spots respectively.   A huge thanks to all our volunteers, and to everyone that came out to support. We’ll catch you at WDHS Round 2 in Karori, Saturday 8th November.   Full race results – WDHS points –Photoset from the event –Wyn Master’s race run WDHS Rounds 2 & 3 - Karori & Maidstone Rounds two and three of the Wellington Downhill Series are forthcoming. Round 2 next month - Saturday 8th November at Karori Park on the revitalised 98DH. And for the final round we visit Maidstone - Saturday 6th December.    Information and registration online at WMTBC.org.nz. Karori 8th Nov - Enter Online >> Maidstone 6th Dec - Enter Online >>   **VOLUNTEERS** Race marshals and drivers are urgently needed for these events. We greatly appreciate any help offered. If interested - please contact events@wmtbc.org.nz. Long Gully Start Ramp Retired  As some of you may be aware, changes are afoot at Long Gully. In short, the landowners are building a house at the top of the Race Track, and earthworks are starting this week. So - the time has come for the original Long Gully start ramp to be put into retirement.   We’ll bring you updates regarding further developments as soon as they come to hand. But in the meantime, as construction on the house begins - access to Long Gully will occasionally be limited. Status updates will be sent out as required via Facebook, WMTBC.org.nz, and email. We would appreciate your cooperation during this time.   We would like to extend our thanks to the Watsons for their hospitality over the past 14 years during which Long Gully has has become synonymous with Wellington Downhill. Regional Community Award for the South Coast Kids Track The award takes pride of place in Floyd's Cafe, right underneath one of the club's new posters that you will see up and around town. Photo Mat Wright / Floyd's Cafe Last month the South Coast Kids Track was formally acknowledged at the 2014 Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards – receiving the top accolade in the Sports and Leisure category. The awards pay tribute to volunteer groups from the Wellington Region whose work has had a positive impact on their local community.   In June, the track was officially opened in Island Bay, and the past months have seen significant uptake by local families and children, and Island Bay School who are running cycling classes on the track. Future plans are in place to encourage more local schools to utilise the track, and Wellington City Council has indicated that the successful model could also be viable in other suburbs.   Thanks to Wellington Airport, Wellington Community Trust, Wellington City Council, Trail Fund NZ, Bike Wellington, Revolve Cycling and Southstar Trails, and importantly - all those in the community that have supported the project.    8Wired, Bruhaus & WMTBC present Ales for Trails A few weeks ago we received a call from Brian at 8Wired asking if there is anything they could do to help us out. A few days later, we had a tap takeover at the Bruhaus organised. There was an excellent turnout on the night, and some very tasty beers from their very special barrel aged series. All in all the event raised $600 for trail building, probably the easiest fundraising we will ever do, just turn up and drink beer. A huge thanks to all those that turned up and imbibed, and to 8 Wired and the Bruhaus for organising the event and their donations. Trail Building Updates Clinical (Polhill Reserve)  The Brooklyn Trail Builders are nearing completion of the latest addition to the Polhill Reserve trail network - Clinical. The new track was made possible through funding received last year from Transpower, Wellington Marathon Clinic and private contributors. Brooklyn Trail Builders volunteers hard at it on Clinical. Photo lifted from BTB Facebook page.    Ultimately it will be an uphill only trail completing an approximately 7km ‘Grand Loop’ of the Reserve. But for the short term Clinical will be open to two-way traffic, contingent on the development of the proposed downhill only trail - Ladylumps. Advice from the Brooklyn Trail Builders is that downhill traffic on Clinical should ride with caution, and give way to uphill traffic.   The majority of the trail has now been built including surfacing and the planting of approximately 500 natives by the trailside. All that remains is 200m of track to be built by volunteers over the next few months, and the installation of structures to cross a number of streams on the track.     Clinical will remain closed until opening in early-2015, and plans are in place to host an event marking the occasion. Watch this space.  98DH (Karori) Over the past few months a crew have been working behind Karori Park rejuvenating the 98DH track which played host to Round 2 of the Wellington DH Series last year.    November 8th this year, 98DH will again host WDHS Round 2 and riders can expect a few welcome changes - most notably more elevation and a longer track. While the lower section into the finish remains relatively unchanged, the top section has been reworked, a number of new lines and jumps have been added, and a start ramp will be in place on race day. On the whole the track retains its characteristic technical personality and will undoubtedly keep riders on their toes.    Cheers to Curtis and crew.    Miramar Track Project The big news is the completion of Juvie and the grade 2 loop, including the kids dual slalom. The new kids dual slalom, part of the new beginners loop at the top of Mt Crawford. Southstar toiled away for a couple of weeks with their diggers opening the line up, for TGL and vollys to come through and tidy up the line and put in several hundred plants. Thomas from TGL has been doing some long hours in the run up to Labour Weekend to get the gravel down and compacted so it was good to ride. Plan is to have an official track opening and open day 30th November. Look out on the club site and Miramar Track Project facebook page for details. Mt Victoria Southstar have also been putting their 2 diggers to good use on Mt Victoria. The lower section of Hippy's has been tidied up from the wooden step down to the exit. New tables and hips have been shaped. Futher down the hill, some of the other tracks have been tidied up, including the Zig Zag and a new climbing track down above the Badminton Hall. WCC has also been running a consultation and coming up with a plan for the northern part of Mt Vic (from the SPCA to the summit). The club is working closely with the planners, ensuring that Rod's plan for those tracks gets incorporated. The club has also been working with WCC on the design for a new descending track from the SPCA roots to the kid's skills area. This proposed new track will eventually form part of the Super D line and will work round some sections of this track that the council is going to close. A high level plan has been mapped out, and can be see on the club site. Reserves Consultation Yup it's WCC Consultation time again. This time it is the "Suburban Reserves Management Plan". This plan hasn't been updated in 10 years, so now is the time for us as Mountain Bikers to get some input. Whilst most of our tracks are either in the Town Belt, Outer Town Belt or special areas that have their own plans, like Mt Vic, this will impact a small number of tracks. Most significantly Miramar and likely, 98DH. The proposed plan also includes some intentions by WCC to investigate options for Watts Peninsula. This is the Defense land north of the prison in Miramar. If you want more cycling facilities like pump tracks and skills areas in local reserves, then head over to the WCC website and make an online submission. We have had some really great turnouts from the community over the past couple of years on these and it has made a big difference to these plans, and the money is starting to come, so please take 5 minutes and fill out the form.  Rad Company Showing - 26th November The Aotearoa Adventure Film Festival is returning to Wellington!   BRANDON SEMENUK'S RAD COMPANY - WELLINGTON - ONE NIGHT ONLY    The Aotearoa Adventure Film Festival (AAFF) is proud to return for its second year. Presented by RotoruaNZ.com and Torpedo7, AAFF is pleased to present some special one-night only screenings of the latest epic Red Bull mountainbike film: Brandon Semenuk's Rad Company.    Film Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr-4LbSSriY   Spectacular riding and filming, so grab some mates and come on down for a night of cinematic mountain bike action on the big screen   Wellington - Rad Company Date: Wednesday, November 26th, 8pm Venue: Lighthouse Cinema Cuba Tickets: $15 available directly at www.lighthousecuba.co.nz and limited door sales on the night.    We hope to see you at the festival! Web: www.aaff.co.nz Facebook: www.facebook.com/aotearoaadventurefilmfestival T-Shirt Orders Are On Again Just in time for a summer of shredding, or for stocking stuffers, we are doing another run of our classic logo T. As per normal, we do preorders only. This means that we can offer more colour combos. The T's are all 100% cotton, AS Color T's and screen printed here by Brazen. $30 to you, all profits go back into the club to help us with events and trail building. Orders will close Sunday 16th November. You will have your Tshirt 7-10 days later. Order yours on the club site now.     Want to keep in touch? Follow WMTBC For up-to-date Club news, updates and media - follow us on Facebook, or check the Club page at WMTBC.org.nz. 1080p WMTBC Desktops Mo’ whips. Rider: Wyn Masters Download Desktop And here’s one commemorating the recently retired Long Gully start ramp. Rider: Steve Wallace. Download Desktop
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      • Wellington International Airport, Coutts Street, Rongotai, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6023, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Unreal estate
      • Do Estate agents live on the same planet as us? Have a look at this: Immaculate Investment Tidy Price This is an extremely well presented investment or home for the discerning purchaser, offering two double bedrooms and a location that will see you conveniently placed for all necessities. Close to transport, shopping and the city, [...]
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      • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Tattoo You Too
      • And so, with a big hello to all the ReMax twitterers out there receiving our feed, we bring you the latest incarnation of the site where the Tattoo Museum was in Abel Smith St - yes, it is now proposed to be the Tattoo Apartment site. Interestingly, it is to be just 4 stories tall - way below the 9 stories that the tacky Orange apartments have achieved just across the street (next to the Southern Cross).
      • Submitted by tonytw1
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      • 42 Abel Smith Street, Wellington


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