iconic little village<\/a> that we’re very lucky to live in. To be frank, two storeys high, three at a push, would be more than enough.”<\/p>\n![\"Eastbourne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4JYS7V4_Margs_Mills_1_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nLocal of 38 years, Margs Mills.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
The village centre had only one building higher, Rona House – a seven-floor apartment block. Mills said people love living there, but it hasn’t been without controversy.<\/p>\n
“The plan was to have two of them, but once the first one was built – and this was years ago – everyone went nuts and said, it causes a terrible wind funnel.<\/p>\n
“We don’t want anything very tall.”<\/p>\n
Mills said change was inevitable but it had to be in keeping with the flavour of the village.<\/p>\n
As for the commercial spaces below the apartments, she had some ideas.<\/p>\n
“Certainly another green-grocer because we’re going to miss the Lais terribly.<\/p>\n
“Some kind of gift shop would be really nice. Maybe a nice restaurant would be fantastic, a nice family restaurant.”<\/p>\n
![\"Eastbourne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4K3RJUD_Eastbourne_Fruit_supply_store_1_3_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nMargs Mills says another green-grocer would be nice.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
Eastbourne Community Board member Bruce Spedding, said he did his best to keep his finger on the pulse of the tight-knit community.<\/p>\n
With regard to a new development, he felt the biggest concern was that it wouldn’t fit with the village character.<\/p>\n
“Four storeys sounds fairly dramatic for Eastbourne, so it would depend on the impact that that has on the village. How the design fits in with what’s already here.”<\/p>\n
He said there was nothing wrong with apartments, but reserved further judgment until he’d seen the plans.<\/p>\n
![\"Eastbourne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4JYS6XQ_Bruce_Spedding_1_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nEastbourne Community Board member Bruce Spedding.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
Spedding said a revamped retail strip (in the ground-floor commercial space) would be pretty important, and could see it tying in with a future visitor boom brought about by a new ferry and cycleway into Wellington city.<\/p>\n
“So all that will involve a lot more outside people coming into Eastbourne, so we want to be able to cater for that as well. It’s quite exciting, there’s a lot going to happen next year, I think.”<\/p>\n
He said ultimately anything that supported Eastbourne businesses was a good thing.<\/p>\n
“These things that are happening could in fact be sort of revitalising.<\/p>\n
“Basically, what we want to do is just make it viable for what we’ve got to remain here.<\/p>\n
“In a lot of other places, businesses are closing down and moving out and communities are losing local resources … so it’s quite a positive thing in that regard.”<\/p>\n
![\"Eastbourne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4JYS8GQ_Eastborune_Fruit_shop_building_1_2_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBruce Spedding says anything that supports Eastbourne businesses is a good thing.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
Spedding said although it was no longer required in the district plan, he encouraged a community meeting so the developer could share plans and hear feedback – a proposition Faisandier was open to, once plans firmed up.<\/p>\n
Faisandier said the company wasn’t in a rush – there were projects to finish first – and they wanted to get it right.<\/p>\n
“Our challenge will be to blend it into the surroundings and use the right type of materials and look.<\/p>\n
“There is a bit of special flair … I want to reuse some of the exisiting brick. So, there’s a little bit of a cherry … we’ll try and incorporate some of the materials and recycle them into the construction.”<\/p>\n
He said all going well, the timeframe to begin work was 2027.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The second-generation owners of the Eastbourne Fruit Supply are shutting up shop next June, after 65 years of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-143666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}