A club building committee looked at five other options, with its preference a new single-storey building landward of the current building and closer to Ferguson Ave.<\/p>\n
But neighbours are opposing the site, preferring the \u201cNo 2\u2033 option about 400m to the north, off Fenwick St, the link from Ferguson Ave to The Esplanade.<\/p>\n
Club stalwart and education director Brian Quirk \u2013 Surf Lifesaving New Zealand Distinguished Service Award recipient (2002), life member (2009) and recognised in 2016 for 50 years of service \u2013 has been raising the issues with authorities for more than four decades.<\/p>\n
But he says he\u2019s \u201cgiven up\u201d to concentrate on growing surf lifesavers of the future and let others take up the issue.<\/p>\n
Keith Price, who represents the Napier City Council\u2019s Ahuriri ward, chaired a council workshop about a month ago which included a discussion with club representatives, and he knows what he\u2019d like.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like more sand,\u201d he says, expecting greater beach nourishment after the expected December arrival of the new suction hopper dredge Kapuka, a joint venture of Port Napier and Port Otago.<\/p>\n
Wistfully, he\u2019d like to see the return of \u201csomething like the ping-pong ball drop\u201d, a popular community 1970s-1980s attraction in which a helicopter dropped hundreds of balls on to the sand for hundreds of people hoping to link ball numbers to major prizes.<\/p>\n
No one would disagree, but they do disagree over the club\u2019s proposals, which were aired at a meeting the club called with residents last week.<\/p>\n
Club building committee chair and town planner John O\u2019Shaughnessy said no final decisions had been made.<\/p>\n
The Westshore Surf Lifesaving Club clubhouse, threatened by the sea and erosion for several decades. The club is considering building a new single-storey clubhouse nearby. Photo \/ Doug Laing<\/p>\n
The focus is on more discussions with residents, hoping to lodge resource and building consent applications early in the new year, and, with favourable Surf Lifesaving New Zealand funding decisions, starting building by the end of next year. <\/p>\n
By that time the lease on the current dirt would have expired.<\/p>\n
Westshore about 45-50 years ago, when there was lots of sand, and lots of people. Photo \/ Old Napier Collection<\/p>\n
Opponents say they accept the need for the surf lifesaving club to relocate, survive and thrive, and a council wish to assist by making land available.<\/p>\n
But, according to one submission at the public meeting, they say building on the site \u201cless than 50 metres\u201d in front of the current building will affect residents living \u201cacross the road\u201d.<\/p>\n
The unnamed submission cites the removal of open, shaded space, removing protected trees, destroying the views, a negative influence on property values, and further risk of inundation of the site, although it would have an elevation of at least a metre above the current footprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is very little sense in spending the millions of dollars required relocating the building less than 50 metres from where they are currently being forced to move from, and squeezing the building into a small strip of land bounded by two roads, a playground, and an eroding beach,\u201d one said.<\/p>\n
Quoting a coastal hazards report, a submission notes the preferred site is eroding at 32cm a year, while the No 2 site is growing by 73cm\/y.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shaughnessy says all the feedback is being considered, but, based on his experience with councils and the public in property matters when it comes to \u201cthe view\u201d, he recognises the possible outcomes won\u2019t please everyone.<\/p>\n
All matters are up for discussion, including the height of the building and the \u201cfootprint\u201d \u2013 the land area being about 10% greater \u2013 and O\u2019Shaughnessy says the club is also trying to secure space away from the site for storage.<\/p>\n
One resident who declined to be named said he believed people were prepared to go \u201call the way\u201d in opposition, but they were \u201cindividual residents\u201d, with no group yet formed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe residents feel just feel it\u2019s a shame to just push it back so close to the road [Ferguson Ave],\u201d he said, highlighting that it would take away a popular shaded area of the reserve and part of the road to it, and be closer to the reserve\u2019s playground.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shaughnessy is confident no p\u014dhutukawa would be removed, although it is possible a couple of Norfolk pines would have to go.<\/p>\n
The committee believes it has considered the options available, of which there were not many, but O\u2019Shaughnessy said there was \u201cstill a long way to go\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Westshore residents\u2019 association, which in the past has made submissions on erosion issues, and also developed and runs its own security surveillance system through the area, is awaiting further information.<\/p>\n
Doug Laing is a Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reporter, based in Napier, with more than 53 years\u2019 experience in newspapers and more than four decades covering news and sports events and issues in Hawke\u2019s Bay. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A club building committee looked at five other options, with its preference a new single-storey building landward of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,4995,3221,3246,3269,18836,115318,9191,52151,2082,71,1345,3012,89195,305086,663,2061,3244,117,111,139,69,213,18694,73661,121823],"class_list":["post-619710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and","tag-away","tag-battling","tag-both","tag-build","tag-club","tag-clubhouse","tag-coastal","tag-erosion","tag-for","tag-from","tag-home","tag-hopes","tag-lifesaving","tag-lifesavings","tag-looks","tag-nature","tag-neighbours","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-surf","tag-swells","tag-westshore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619710","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=619710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}