Hobsonville Point - An Overview of the New Development on the Hobsonville Peninsula Auckland
Hobsonville Point is a long-term development plan for the Hobsonville Peninsula, situated at the upper end of the Waitemata Harbour, northwest of Auckland New Zealand.
The development of Hobsonville Point is anticipated to take approximately 15 years, with the first phase of this development well underway.
The land that this new development will be situated on was previously the Hobsonville Air Force Base and contains a large number of historically significant buildings.
The Hobsonville Point project aims to maintain the integrity of this history by retaining a number of these buildings and naming streets, parks and amenities with historically relevant names.
Examples of this are in the naming of some of the 8 precincts that the development has been broken into.
These include Buckley Precinct, Hudson Precinct, Sunderland Precinct, Marine Industry Precinct, The Landing Precinct, Yard 37 Precinct, The Village Precinct and Catalina Precinct.
The first of these Precincts to be developed will be the Buckley Precinct.
The project also aims to provide sustainable housing, designed to be both energy and water efficient.
As of the end of August 2010, many community amenities have already been put in place.
A new playground which includes interesting eye-catching sculptures, the Catalina Cafe, has recently opened and the old Air Force Base tennis courts have been resealed, just in time for Spring.
There has also been the establishment of the Hobsonville Plant Network which has brought back to life an old farmhouse, and aims to teach and foster ecological awareness among the residents, teaching skills such as setting up a worm farm, composting and native plant growing.
Two new schools are planned for the area.
A primary School by the end of 2013 and a secondary school by the end of 2014.
A ferry service aims to commence to the city within a year which will also co-incide with the opening of a new motorway, linking the North Western Motorway to the Northern Motorway, which feeds into Hobsonville Point.
For all the positives, there are some negatives to this development.
People currently renting in the area are being required to vacate their houses, the development works are testing to those living nearby, where delays and roadworks are common place.
Today infact I had two contractors strolling unannounced into my backyard to do a land survey.
They won't be doing that again without knocking on my door first! It will be interesting to see whether the community focussed vision of the project developers will produce the clean living, healthy, manicured environment they are promoting, or whether it will become just another high density housing area with little charm.
Time will tell.
So in conclusion, the way forward is an exciting one, sad in many respects to lose the wide open spaces that currently exist within Hobsonville Point but progress is progress and optimism is high.
The development of Hobsonville Point is anticipated to take approximately 15 years, with the first phase of this development well underway.
The land that this new development will be situated on was previously the Hobsonville Air Force Base and contains a large number of historically significant buildings.
The Hobsonville Point project aims to maintain the integrity of this history by retaining a number of these buildings and naming streets, parks and amenities with historically relevant names.
Examples of this are in the naming of some of the 8 precincts that the development has been broken into.
These include Buckley Precinct, Hudson Precinct, Sunderland Precinct, Marine Industry Precinct, The Landing Precinct, Yard 37 Precinct, The Village Precinct and Catalina Precinct.
The first of these Precincts to be developed will be the Buckley Precinct.
The project also aims to provide sustainable housing, designed to be both energy and water efficient.
As of the end of August 2010, many community amenities have already been put in place.
A new playground which includes interesting eye-catching sculptures, the Catalina Cafe, has recently opened and the old Air Force Base tennis courts have been resealed, just in time for Spring.
There has also been the establishment of the Hobsonville Plant Network which has brought back to life an old farmhouse, and aims to teach and foster ecological awareness among the residents, teaching skills such as setting up a worm farm, composting and native plant growing.
Two new schools are planned for the area.
A primary School by the end of 2013 and a secondary school by the end of 2014.
A ferry service aims to commence to the city within a year which will also co-incide with the opening of a new motorway, linking the North Western Motorway to the Northern Motorway, which feeds into Hobsonville Point.
For all the positives, there are some negatives to this development.
People currently renting in the area are being required to vacate their houses, the development works are testing to those living nearby, where delays and roadworks are common place.
Today infact I had two contractors strolling unannounced into my backyard to do a land survey.
They won't be doing that again without knocking on my door first! It will be interesting to see whether the community focussed vision of the project developers will produce the clean living, healthy, manicured environment they are promoting, or whether it will become just another high density housing area with little charm.
Time will tell.
So in conclusion, the way forward is an exciting one, sad in many respects to lose the wide open spaces that currently exist within Hobsonville Point but progress is progress and optimism is high.