This year, Kāpiti Coast District Council is asking for your thoughts on a document called the Long-term Plan 2021-41. The Long-term Plan is a guide to the major projects that our Council is planning to spend money on over the coming years.
From now until 10 May, you can tell Council what you think about their plans in a few ways:
● On their website through an online survey
● Write and email your thoughts to longtermplan@kapiticoast.govt.nz
● Write and drop your thoughts to one of Kāpiti’s libraries, pools or service centres
● Write and post your thoughts to: Long-term plan submissions, Kāpiti Coast District Council, Private Bag 60601, Paraparaumu 525
We have written this document to help you write to the Council about how they should take stronger action on climate change. You can either copy and paste our words below into your submission, or use them to help inspire your own.
We’d love to know what you say. Please share your submissions with us in our Facebook
group or via email to our Chair – ashergoldman@gmail.com.
The full submission that Low Carbon Kapiti is making to KCDC can be downloaded here:
A summary of the main points for your reference is below.
Climate-friendly housing
Council is thinking about playing a bigger role in ensuring we have affordable, secure housing in our district. We think:
- New housing development should not take place in places at the highest risk of climate change – including places subject to coastal erosion and rising groundwater levels causing flooding.
- New housing development should be done in an environmentally friendly way.
- Council should support ways to build infill housing (more than one house on a section) and tiny houses for those who want them.
- Council should look to support higher-density housing (townhouses, apartments) near Paraparaumu and Waikanae train stations to allow more residents near our main public transport spine.
- Council should build public transport and walking and cycling infrastructure in places that have already been identified for future housing growth, and ensure all major subdivisions have good walking and cycling access to public transport, the coast, schools and major amenities.
Kāpiti Coast airport
Council wants to know if it should help to save Kāpiti Coast airport. We think:
- Council should not spend any money trying to keep Kāpiti Coast airport open.
- The land currently used by the airport should be returned to the hapū it was originally taken from, to use as they see fit.
- If the hapū agrees, we would support the land being turned into a mix of papakāinga and affordable housing, along with parks, shared paths and restoration of the wetland and the Wharemauku stream.
Climate-friendly transport
Council spends a significant amount of its overall budget on transport, and this goes mostly on roading projects. We think:
- Council should commission a vulnerability assessment of all roading infrastructure to assess which is most at risk from climate change, and use that assessment to inform future plans and decisions.
- Council should not build a new road connecting Kapiti Rd with Ihakara St, instead it should put that money into enhancement to the Wharemauku stream and surrounding wetlands.
- Council should prioritise safe crossings for cyclists and pedestrians on our major paths where they intersect with busy roads. Examples of these are Poplar Ave between Te Ara o Whareroa and the M2PP shared path, the crossing of Rimu Rd between the Wharemauku Stream Track exits and Coastlands, and Kapiti Rd at the entrance to Kapiti Landing.
- Council should significantly rebalance its funding towards walking and cycling and away from roading, with investment into new shared paths for commuters.
Waste collection
Council wants to reduce waste going to landfill. We believe in order to do this, it should:
- Bring waste collection back in-house, so there is only one set of trucks driving our streets each week instead of multiple trucks from competing companies.
- Introduce green waste collection as part of this, so every house can have their green waste collected kerbside. Compost from this could then be given to parks, community gardens, schools and others who want it.
Achieving climate targets for our district, not just our council
Council has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2025. This is fantastic and we want to make sure it happens.
Taken alone, it is not enough. We need Council to take actions that support our whole district moving towards carbon neutrality – not just Council’s own actions.