Bay of Plenty councils prepare for next king tide on February 1

The Bay is bracing itself for the next king tide on February 1, with councils preparing to deal with flooding hot spots if the tide looked like coinciding with another storm.

Lessons learned from last Friday's combination of a king tide, a subtropical low and howling northerlies would be applied to planning for February 1.

''If there is a weather event, we can start planning for the hot spots,'' the Western Bay council's utilities manager Kelvin Hill said.
Bay of Plenty Regional councillor and Tauranga's former mayor Stuart Crosby has called for a new deal involving central Government, councils and utilities to cope with the multibillion-dollar impact of protecting low-lying properties from more intensive and regular floods.

The storm damaged track on the Takitimu Drive side of Tauranga's Waikareao Estuary has been closed to cyclists and walkers. Photo / George Novak

The Local Government New Zealand vice-president was responding to Friday's floods in which water was sent surging across Tauranga's north-facing shorelines.

Worst affected were some commercial properties on the estuary side of the Judea industrial area and the surge lapping into the Silver Birch Holiday Park.

Crosby said an alternative was needed to the current system in which councils addressed flood-control issues on a case-by-case basis, with a lot of the cost falling on ratepayers.

''In the long term, the burden is far too much for a community to meet.''

He said flooding in areas such as Maleme St and Oak Lane in Judea would continue until new protection systems were in place.

The regional council dealt with its river control systems by having landowners who directly benefited paying up to 80 per cent of the cost.

''I have no doubt that the city council and the regional council will be looking at their options."

Western Bay mayor Garry Webber said Friday showed how vulnerable the Bay was to weather like this and how climate change was a fact of life.

He believed the future-proofing of the Western Bay for the next 50 to 60 years needed to start with a joint-councils approach through SmartGrowth.

''The management of stormwater was absolutely critical."

Webber said it was ''touch and go'' for property owners at Waihi Beach's Two Mile Creek.

Piers but no boardwalk remain on a storm-affected stream crossing on the walkway and cycleway around Waikareao Estuary. Photo / George Novak

At Omokoroa, the golf course went underwater and water flowed across The Esplanade.

Kelvin Hill, the district council's utilities manager, said water intruded into a couple of low-lying homes at Te Puna West and Maketu.

Flood waters stayed out of homes in Omokoroa and there was some erosion damage on the coastline at Maketu and Pukehina.

Overall, the district got off reasonably lightly, Hill said.

The intensity of the rain was not so great that the system could not handle it and it was more about water not being able to get away because of the king tide and high winds.

Tauranga City Council emergency management and safety manager Paul Baunton was not aware of damage being reported from previous flooding hot spots such as the Oropi business park, the Maleme St/Glenlyon Ave industrial area and Brook St off Fraser St.
He had no information that water had entered houses in Tauranga, although it may have started to enter garages.

Beach Rd and Harbour Drive had water come over the road but less than in the past where seawalls had been reinstated, he said.

There was a little bit of seawall damage at Maungatapu and Matua.

Tauranga mayor Greg Brownless said it was fortunate how the city had been spared.

Regional council chairman Doug Leeder said the events of Friday would be the topic of considerable debate among the Bay's councils. He imagined it would include stopbanks on the Kopurererua Stream, although stopbanks were usually a consequence of landowners' requests.