West Coasters will soon be able to find out online if their property or one they’re thinking of buying is at risk from liquefaction – or a host of other damaging events.
However, a regional councillor has warned, “you can’t stop stupid” as developments happen in risky areas.
Under new government rules, regional councils must now share all the information they gather on natural hazards, and district councils must list the risks in plain language, on every property’s LIM report (Land Information Memorandum).
At the West Coast Regional Council’s Resource Management meeting this week, staff reported they were aiming to have a hazards portal open for public access on the council website by the end of the year.
“We’ll start with some easily-communicated hazards that we’ve already touched on with communities, like coastal hazards and flood risk … and liquefaction potential,” Environmental Science manager Shanti Morgan told councillors.
The portal would show the various risk zones, allow people to look at the maps and reports and evaluate risks to their property.
Many of the reports held by the council were highly technical, but under new local government information [LGOIMA] rules, it would now provide simple language summaries of each one.
The council’s natural hazards expert Dr Sharon Hornblow was working on the project, and the council would need to be 100% confident in the site before it went public, Morgan said.
“We will put a good comms plan in place and make sure the community has the opportunity to ask questions of our experts,” Morgan said.
Ewen said with council elections coming up, new councillors would need to be made aware the work was mandatory.
Liquefaction – when soil turns to liquid in an earthquake – was a new addition to the hazards list, he noted.
Andy Campbell said the impact would depend a lot on where a potential quake was centred.
“We might scare a whole lot of people. We need to be clear that it’s about potential risk so we don’t scare them too much.”
Campbell said the important thing was to stop people building in “stupid” places.
“We can’t stop what’s been done … but building right by the sea is probably not a good idea now.”
Resource Management chair Brett Cummings said liquefaction would be the last thing people worried about when “ the big one” hit.
“Most places at risk of liquefaction on the Coast are probably already built on for retail and so on … Westport was built on liquefaction.”
The council could help mitigate risk by passing the information on.
“It comes down to what sort of house you build. Say you’re prone to liquefaction, you’re better off with piles than a concrete slab.“
Cummings said some Coast developers were not bothering to ask about natural hazards.
“They just get a digger in, have the site cleared, get a building on there in a week.
“No-one can stop stupid. But I’m sure the insurance people will pick up on it and that’s where ‘buyer beware’ (comes in) isn’t it.”
Chris Coll – a Westport land surveyor – said if people did build in ‘stupid’ places they had to come up with technology that countered those risks.
The Government’s lean towards industry self-regulation raised the prospect of ‘leaky homes all over again’, he warned.
Chair Peter Haddock said the hazards project was an important piece of work for the council and the community, and staff were to be commended for it.
“As we’ve seen in events around the country, there’s a huge legal risk to both the Government and councils by not identifying these risks.
“We’ve seen for years that people have built in wrong places, whether it because of coastal inundation or flood risk or just building on hazardous places like the toes of hills,” Haddock said.
The hazard zones would not mean people could not build on a site.
“But for instance you know you have to have a certain floor level so it’s not susceptible to flooding.”
The same applied to the risk posed by the sea, Haddock said.
“With coastal inundation, the thing is to build transportable homes, rather than build on a concrete slab. Then if there’s a future risk …it can be lifted and taken away.”
WCRC chief executive Darryl Lew said the Government wanted Regional Councils to communicate hazard information more efficiently so it ended up not just on LIMs, but informed building codes and consents.
The lessons learned from Cyclone Gabrielle included ‘buyer beware’ and that property owners needed to be better informed on risk, Lew said.
“People have made conscious decisions to build in hazard-prone areas and not having insurance because of it. The Government can’t keep bailing them out, post-event.”
By Lois Williams, Local Democracy Reporter
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
