Cambridge Growth

What’s underway now?

• The Summerset Retirement Village and Health Hub in Cambridge North are underway and making good progress.
• We are still in the planning stages for the C1 growth cell.
• We have approved a resource consent for 3Ms of Cambridge Limited, within the C2 growth cell. This will bring a new residential area, retail, parks, roads and a primary school to Cambridge, located close to the Grassroots Trust Velodrome.
• The C3 growth cell is currently in the master-planning stage.
• We're also working alongside the developer for C4 in Leamington on three waters infrastructure.

Te Awa River Ride detour

Construction of a stormwater outlet which will service the new developments on Cambridge and Hamilton Roads, will begin on September 11.

This construction, as part of the C2 and C3 growth cells in Cambridge West, will require a section of the Te Awa River Ride to be closed from 15 November 2023. A 400m compacted gravel detour around the work site will be in place for about 12 months, from early October.

The section of track is between the Grassroots Trust Velodrome and Gaslight Theatre, directly below the C3 development site.

Public can still access different parts of the track from the Gaslight Theatre on Alpha Street or at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome, off Hanlin Road.

Character - the look and feel

There are many things that make up the character of Cambridge - the views, the green belt, the street grid pattern, the trees, the garden beds and the historic buildings and monuments. We want to ensure these features are continued and enhanced through all new areas of Cambridge.

Here’s what we’re proposing:

• consistent grid patterns for new streets. This creates lovely long-distance views where you can see tree-lined streets, the green belt and the hills beyond.
• streets with large green frontages and trees, like the rest of Cambridge. This provides visual amenity for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers passing by and privacy for residents – it also keeps our town visually cohesive.
• houses along the street will have the same setbacks. This helps to maintain and enhance character, and provides a consistent building line for houses.
• houses positioned to make the best use of the site - in terms of sun, privacy and access to nearby shops and recreation spaces.
• limited fence heights to help foster safe, friendly neighbourhoods. Tall fences can easily block others light, views and visibility, shorter fences make for a safe community.

Recreation

Open spaces, parks and reserves are an integral part of the Cambridge lifestyle. We’re lucky to be connected by a green town belt, cycleways, walking tracks, lakes and tree lined streets.

It’s not just a want for us, we need to continue this theme because to keep Cambridge the place we all love. We’re used to formal and informal recreation spaces where we can take in the view or kick a ball around with family.

Our plans provide for open spaces and connect the new developments through a network of “green” pedestrian and cycle ways. Our plans also preserve any existing natural areas (river terraces, farm drain channels etc.) and important heritage sites.

Here’s what we’re proposing:

• Strong walking and cycling links with existing great pathways, like Te Awa Cycleway and the green belt.
• A network of interconnected green spaces which allow for a range of uses and provide opportunities for people to improve their health and wellbeing.
• Local playgrounds and informal play areas within 5 to 10 minutes’ walk from all residents.
• A destination playground – larger than a normal neighbourhood playground to provide more play equipment that is fun and challenging for a range of ages. It could also include a other features like seating, shade, barbecues or similar, to create spaces for families to spend all day together.
• Opportunity for formal sportsfields to support the growing population – this could be used for a range of Saturday sports and provide for year-round enjoyment.
• We want to have provision for at least 15 percent ‘green’ space within each growth area.

Neighbourhood shopping areas

We all like convenience and with more people calling Cambridge home, we will need additional convenient retail and services to the North. The centre of Cambridge will remain the CBD area, so these smaller shopping areas will provide for the morning dash for milk, small takeaways such as fish ‘n’ chips, or a trip to the doctor. It’s about providing for the quick-stop shopping that we do frequently within easy walking and cycling distance.

For the population size, Cambridge has shortage in food and convenience retail and services. With this in mind, there’s room for a commercial retail development in C1 and another in C2 to cater for both C2 and C3.

Remember, this will take time to happen - we’re working with the developers and the community to determine when the time is right for this to happen.

Here’s what we’re proposing:

• C1 - a neighbourhood centre of around 15,000m2, including convenience retail and services, a potential supermarket and supporting local amenities.
• C2/3 – a neighbourhood centre of around 20,000m2 located in C2, near Hamilton Road, including convenience retail and services, a potential supermarket and supporting local amenities. Developers need to fit parking, internal roads, open spaces and community facilities within this size.

Design guidelines will be prepared to help plan what layout, form and scale these neighbourhood centres will look like, so they remain walkable and vibrant.