It has been an exciting year with a great deal of progress made towards realising Ponsonby Park – the civic open space at 254 Ponsonby Road. So as 2019 draws to a close, we thought it a good time to take stock of some of the things that have been achieved this year.
LandLAB continues to be involved as their Park+ concept design progresses through the business case process. This has proved to be indispensable as the inevitable constraints presented by the condition of the existing structures, the viability of their repurposing and the need to find creative solutions to these challenges has presented.
At the time of writing, the Community-led Design (CLD) group expects to be approaching you, our community, soon with information about what has been discovered through the business case process and asking for your feedback and input.
So keep a lookout for consultation announcements via:
- our Facebook pages, Ponsonby Park and 254 Ponsonbyrd
- our website www.254ponsonbyrd.org.nz
- notification on our Ponsonby Park noticeboard, that is on-site next to Dizengoff cafe by the bus stop
- the Neighbourly.co.nz noticeboard
- plus we will send out an email notification to all of those already on our extensive digital database
A significant outcome this year has been the allocation of additional funds to enable the development of the new civic space to be completed in only one stage, instead of two stages as initially required. This has been made possible by council selling an endowment property and some of the funds being allocated to the Ponsonby Park project. Brilliant!
The next steps are:
1. Seek community feedback on the business case options
2. Present the business case to the Waitemat-a Local Board
3. Take the approved business case to the Finance and Expenditure
Committee for approval
4. Start on-site work to create Ponsonby Park in July 2020
There are now only eight months to go before physical work is scheduled to begin on site at 254 Ponsonby Road. What a great year 2019 has been – but not as good as next year will be when we finally begin realising the dream of Ponsonby Park that so many of you have supported and nurtured for such a long time.
To everyone who has been part of the journey to date – from the original members of the then Auckland City Council who had the vision to purchase the site in 2006, to the current Auckland Council which has continued to support the vision of the civic space through the retention of the entire site and the allocation of the endowment funding, to our generous Ward Councillors Mike Lee and our newly minted Councillor Pippa Coom, to the past and present members of the Waitemat-a Local Board and all their support staff and, most importantly, to you our community, who have consistently and continuously engaged with us through the CLD process, supporting us through the long journey to get to where we are today – THANK YOU! We couldn’t have done it without you.
We wish you all a happy and safe holiday season, full of good cheer, rest and relaxation. Arohanui. (JENNIFER WARD)
For more information, follow or contact us on Facebook: ‘Ponsonby Park’ or on our website: www.254ponsonbyrd.org.nz