Organisations behind the community-driven Opua Masterplan will present their visions for the town and unveil the first development projects at a public meeting to be held in the Opua Community Hall between 7pm and 10.30pm on Wednesday 10 June.
Love Opua, a community group established in 2014 with the aim of making the town a better place to live, will outline its action programme, including a security initiative and a neighbourhood support network to combat crime.
Far North Holdings will provide updates on its plans for the second stage of its marina, including cultural aspects arising from its discussions with Ngati Manu and its hapu Te Uri Karaka and Te Uri o Raewera. It will also unveil details of a new a fitness trail to be developed as a result of input from students at Opua School.
The Opua Business Association will give an update on their activities and the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust will outline plans for the new Opua Railway Station and cycleway.
Kevin Milne of the New Zealand Police in Paihia and Deputy Mayor Tania McInnes will also speak about the Opua masterplan and how they see it contributing to the development of the town.
Organisers will describe how the masterplan will be developed and implemented on an ongoing basis, and how people can contribute and become involved.
The event is being organised by Love Opua with the support of Far North Holdings and the other organisations involved in the development of the Opua Masterplan, a structured but evolving overview of what the community wants the town to look and feel like in the next 15 to 20 years.
“Nothing about the masterplan is set in stone,” said Far North Holdings chief executive Andy Nock. “But it does give the community a vision on which to base our plans and ideas, and a forum for people to become involved with building the Opua we’d all like to see in the future.”
Far North Holdings is working closely with Love Opua to develop the masterplan by pulling together the activities of all the organisations involved into a single forum.
“It’s about identifying the commonly-held visions that people have for our town and then co-ordinating and maximising our limited resources to help turn these into reality,” said Dr Brian Hepburn, Chairman of Love Opua. “Together we can achieve so much more than we can as individual organisations.”