More land in Tangoio, where a housing development had begun, has been provisionally placed in Category 3. Photo / Hawke's Bay Regional Council
More land in Tangoio, where a housing development had begun, has been provisionally placed in Category 3. Photo / Hawke's Bay Regional Council
Land previously earmarked to be turned into a new coastal community in Tangoio, north of Napier, has been added to Hawke’s Bay’s Category 3 list, partly due to there being no safe evacuation routes.
A total of 39 properties at Tangoio Beach have now been deemed unsafe to live on and provisionally added to the region’s Category 3 list.
Most of that land is part of a subdivision project, where 37 lots were to be turned into homes. Only a handful of those homes have been built.
The decision - to provisionally move that area from Category 2A to Category 3 - has taken months to reach as the regional council has been weighing up whether any steps could be taken to protect the land and homes.
The regional council concluded there were no “viable mitigations” and the area was “far too unsafe”.
Landowners will be able to ask for a review of that provisional decision before it is finalised.
If nothing changes, those properties with homes on their sections will be eligible for a voluntary buyout.
Other property owners - who have not yet built homes - may also be eligible for a voluntary buyout, depending on several factors, under the voluntary buyout policy.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive Nic Peet said options had been considered to protect that land but none were considered viable.
“It is considered far too unsafe to move this community to Category 1,” he said. “Without a viable solution, we have formed the view that the Tangoio Beach community should be assigned a provisional Category 3 status.”
A large section of Tangoio has already been finalised in Category 3, including 38 other properties.
The finalised list of Category 3 properties in Hawke's Bay. It does not include the further 39 properties in Tangoio which have been provisionally added. Photo / NZME
Peet said introducing stopbanks and even raising the floor levels of homes had been considered.
“For both options, affordability for property owners, funding availability from government, insurability of properties, coastal inundation hazards and building consent issues present significant barriers to the viability and success of these solutions,” he said.
“Regardless of the potential solution, safe egress during flooding events remains an ongoing concern for this area.
“In order to evacuate, people are required to travel into the Category 3 area to reach the main road.
“The lack of accessibility during a flooding event and the inability to safely evacuate the Tangoio Beach community increases the risk to life.
“For these reasons, HBRC does not believe there are viable mitigations for this area and it is considered far too unsafe to move this community to Category 1.”
A total of 287 properties across Hawke’s Bay were finalised in Category 3 last month, ahead of the voluntary buyout process beginning this month.
