Riversdale Beach is one step closer to having its draft community plan ready for community feedback over summer.
Through a “very thorough and involved” public engagement phase, the community has identified five draft priority areas for the small coastal settlement of just over 200 permanent residents.
These are protecting the natural environment, safeguarding the community’s rural beach character and sense of place, fostering community spirit, ensuring infrastructure meets the community’s needs and enhancing community organisations, facilities and assets.
A public workshop in September was designed “to check that we’re on the right track and come up with some solutions against those five priority areas”, Masterton District Council’s [MDC] community development team leader Kelsi Rutene said.
She said the next step is to “put it back to the community to double check this is what was said and aligns with the community’s thinking, get that back and develop a final document early next year”.
“It’s not a council plan about Riversdale. It’s Riversdale’s plan to go forward and work with other parties,” Riversdale Beach resident and community kaiarahi [connector] Roger Tweedy said.
“Obviously, one of the key parties is the council, but it is our plan,” he said. “It’s about what do we want and how do we fund that.”
MDC’s involvement has been to “facilitate” the process of developing the plan, Rutene said.
The value of the community-led planning process is “it captures a shared vision and aspirations for that particular community,” Rutene said.
“I think as council we can sometimes make assumptions about certain places and what their needs are, without a conversation ahead of time, or any prior understanding of that community.
“[Community plans] provide really important insight for council and other organisations about the direction a community wants to take.”
In practical terms “having a community plan circulating” in council can assist decision-making, Rutene said.
“Say, for example, the community wants to protect the rural beach character, then our team will ensure infrastructure and assets are designed sensitively to what the community is after.”
Tweedy acknowledges the process has not been without its challenges.
There have been some delays between workshops, which led to “quite a bit of frustration”, but “we’ve committed to doing a monthly newsletter to the community, to let them know what’s happening and how they can get involved.”
Tweedy is optimistic about the future of the community plan.
“There’s a lot of expertise and a lot of talented people” in Riversdale, he said. “We are a typical country community and self-sufficient to a degree, but it is about how can we build on that. How do we maintain that community feel.”
