Changes are coming with regard to building homes on clifftops. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Auckland Council plans to release the first details of proposed new building rules for clifftops and coastal and flood-prone areas in August in a bid to prevent widespread property damage like that wrought by the devastating summer storms.
The council is still in recovery mode following the catastrophic weather events - but behind the scenes, planning staff are working on the longer-term implications across complex public policy and infrastructure settings.
Homes were left teetering on clifftops and others were wiped out by massive slips. Many were inundated by floodwaters when swollen streams burst their banks, forcing hundreds of households to evacuate and causing millions of dollars in damage.
Three months on, 313 properties remain red-stickered across the city, of which 241 are at risk from an external hazard and 92 have been seriously damaged. Cordons remain around some properties that pose a risk to public safety.
Auckland-wide planning manager Phill Reid said the work to identify where new homes could be built safely would be delivered in stages, with some initial recommendations expected by August.
He said these would be around new rules being drawn up in coastal areas prone to flooding and slips using updated evidence. For example, instead of planning for a one-metre rise in sea levels over the next 100 years, it is being suggested the new rules would apply to a 1.5m sea-level rise.
A Karekare woman whose home was obliterated by a landslide during Cyclone Gabrielle said her family had relocated to the city, but still hoped to rebuild in the isolated West Auckland settlement they loved.
“Home is ultimately in Karekare,” Amber Rhodes told the Herald.
Reid said if broader changes to Auckland’s Unitary Plan - which governs how zoning changes are managed - were identified, then draft plan changes would take place with input from Aucklanders.
Asked how the council was dealing with new applications to build in flood-prone areas, resource consent general manager Ian Smallburn said current Unitary Plan rules still applied, albeit with an improved understanding of stormwater effects following the flooding events.
Those rules, he said, state new developments require resource consent to ensure the risk can be avoided or managed effectively.
“Where developments are proposed in floodplains that do not minimise risks effectively, then the council has the ability to decline these applications,” Smallburn said.
Nearly 70,000 homes in Auckland are prone to flooding and 50,000 properties face capacity issues with water and wastewater during heavy rain, according to council data.
What’s more, the city faces “significant risk” from coastal erosion. A recent report found the provisions in the Unitary Plan, based on a report in 2006, underestimated the hazards in many areas.
Before January’s floods, the council said recent information on sea-level rise and revised predictions of storm events indicated that the Auckland coastline is under threat of increasing erosion, and recommended avoiding any further development within areas susceptible to coastal erosion.
Hundreds of West Auckland residents, many of whom have suffered multiple floods over the past two years and had their properties red and yellow-stickered, have been calling for the managed retreat of homes, retrofitting of infrastructure and the cleaning up of rivers and streams.
The Government has a bill to legislate rules for handling the “retreat” of communities from climate-induced disasters, but it has been delayed because of Cyclone Gabrielle to make sure cyclone rebuilding does not take place on land that should be abandoned.
The homeowners, who have formed West Auckland Is Flooding (Waif), are also keen to hear back from Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson, who last month set up a task force to look at a number of issues, including managed retreat.
Waif spokesman Lyall Carter said residents were looking forward to what central and local governments were going to propose, “which is probably going to be transformational”.
Carter said if the council sought to change building rules in flood-prone areas, it needed to understand the impact of those communities and consult with people.
He said there would be some homes that could not be saved, but the simple act of cleaning out streams and building detention ponds and flood walls would protect many homes and be a large part of managed retreat.
“At the end of the day, people want to live in a home, not sit there preparing to flee when the dark clouds gather and the rain starts to fall. We want people to feel safe in their homes,” Carter said.
Some initial recommendations in the council work programme will cover Plan Change 78 - the council’s response to the Government’s directive for greater housing intensification across the city.
Earlier this month, Environment Minister David Parker granted the council a one-year extension to the Plan Change 78 process in light of the significant flooding and landslides caused by the extreme weather.
The extension, Parker said, was to enable staff to investigate flooding impacts and their implications for land-use planning, infrastructure and policy settings.
“I expect this scope to include a review of the council’s approach to intensification in non-floodable areas, and the development of blue-green corridors in flood-prone areas,” the minister said.
Parker said adopting a water-sensitive - or “sponge city” - approach to urban development would better handle the flood risk and create benefits, such as more green spaces, improved water quality and increased biodiversity.
Parker said the council should beef up the Unitary Plan to prevent large impermeable areas such as driveways, carparks and terraces in new and existing sites.
Meanwhile, the council yesterday announced it had appointed engineer Mat Tucker as the group recovery manager for the January 27 floods and Cyclone Gabrielle for an initial 12-month period, starting on April 26.
A Karekare woman whose home was obliterated by a massive slip during Cyclone Gabrielle says, two months on, her mangled house is still sitting in the middle of the road.
Amber Rhodes told the Herald she, her family, and the whole Karekare community didn’t know what the future held for them.
She was optimistic her house could be rebuilt, but was unsure about others in the west coast community. Rhodes feared for the settlement’s future if people were told they couldn’t rebuild.
“I don’t know how you could possibly shut off an entire community and get them to move.
“It’s an emotional subject, because people who choose to live there choose to ... because we all love it very, very deeply.”
While Rhodes hoped to rebuild, she and her family had since moved closer to town.
“But home is ultimately in Karekare.”
Rhodes said the whole landscape had changed.
“It is a very different place. It is going to take a lot of healing for people and the land,” she said.
“Moving forward, we need to let each other heal and figure our way through it. It is a very deep wound for the whole community.”
Rhodes’ house was reduced to debris. She has since picked through what was left and is focused on appreciating “the small things in life”.
She salvaged a cast-iron pan, a drill set Christmas present from her husband and a brooch from her mother.
“Despite the immense loss and the trauma and grief we’ve gone through, I still feel really, really lucky because we got out with our lives.”
The vehicle was damaged while later being towed and an $11k claim by the owner followed.