By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE
TAURANGA - Nearly 930 existing waterfront properties have land below new hazard levels set for subdivision and building around Tauranga's harbour margins.
The properties could be flooded in an "extreme" (one-in-50-year) storm.
The Tauranga District Council is to introduce less conservative requirements than the 3.2m above mean sea levels which it has applied for the past two years.
Taken at Mt Maunganui's Moturiki Island, the revised measurements of between 2.7m and 2.9m - depending on site location - will become the minimum floor or ground level for new development.
The council's environmental services manager, Craig Batchelar, said initial identification of land affected showed 3544 properties had some portion within the potential harbour flooding areas.
But that included large rural areas, commercial and industrial land, reserves and valleys along the Wairoa, Kopurererua and Waimapu rivers.
Residential parcels containing land below the new hazard levels totalled 927.
Mr Batchelar said a significant number of properties might be partly below the flood line, but with no potential risk to any dwellings on them.
The council's investigations covered the harbour flooding impact on low-lying areas from a combination of tide, expected sea level rise, wind and waves, during a one-in-50-year storm.
A study by consultant engineers Tonkin and Taylor found that low-lying land adjacent to long, exposed reaches of the harbour, where the water was shallow, was more susceptible to flooding than land-bordering, sheltered, deeper-water areas.
Affected property owners will be invited to meet council officers to learn how the new rules will apply if they subdivide, build new houses or upgrade existing ones.
Tauranga to ease rule on harbour properties
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