Thanks for sharing your feedback with us!

From 13 February to 27 March 2023, we sought feedback from our communities about what they wanted the future of their towns, villages and our district to look like.

We received around 1800 comments and surveys both online and at the 15 events we held across the district and gathered around 200 pieces of feedback via our social media channels.

We also received feedback through the many conversations we had with mana whenua representatives as well as 23 responses from community groups and organisations across Waipā.

In total, this was just under 2000 pieces of feedback which we will now use to further develop and refine our draft community spatial plan (link to draft plan).

You can take a look at some of what people told us here. A full report of the feedback we received and how we will address it, will be available in the coming months.

Next steps

We’ll be back out later this year to share the updated draft spatial plan with you, after taking your feedback into consideration, so we can make sure we’ve got it right.

We’ll keep you updated as we progress with this project and look forward to speaking with you again as develop this important plan.

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Plan highlights

Highlights of the plan, which illustrate what Waipā could look like by 2050, include:

The populations of Cambridge and Te Awamutu have nearly doubled, and our villages have grown too.
None of our towns or villages have grown beyond their boundaries (set out in the Waipā 2050 District Growth Strategy), with the exception of Ōhaupō.
In Cambridge and Te Awamutu, the housing supply has diversified, and there are more duplexes, townhouses, and small apartments providing a wider range of housing choices and affordability.
Karāpiro has become a renowned recreation destination following investment into the network of parks and open spaces along the river.
Within our towns and villages, we can walk or bike to meet most of our day-to-day needs

The interim draft spatial plan pdf

What has happened so far?

To get to this point, we’ve:

Reviewed all strategies currently in place such as the Cambridge Town Concept Plan Refresh and the Long Term Plan 2021-2031
Considered other strategies that are not owned by Council but will affect our district such as the Future Proof Strategy (a sub-regional strategy to manage growth)
Established what our non-negotiables are. These are the things we will have to address and provide for in the plan e.g. climate change
Reviewed all the feedback we have received from our communities during previous consultations including the Long Term Plan 2021-2031
Developed five future scenarios to explore what the future could possibly look like
Sought early feedback from Mana Whenua partners and organisations across the district
Used this feedback along with what we already know is important to our community to create the draft spatial plan

We are still at the start of our journey and have a long way to go until the plan can be finalised. We are looking forward to taking the next steps alongside our communities.