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ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF/Stuff
A street in South Dunedin, an area prone to flooding.
The Dunedin City Council is investigating a voluntary property acquisition scheme for flood-prone South Dunedin, and is in early discussions with central Government.
Under the scheme, properties could be purchased voluntarily on the open market – over decades – as a way to implement the South Dunedin climate change adaptation strategy currently under development with the community.
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said: “The adaptation strategy will outline what is needed in South Dunedin’’.
“Acquiring property will enable us to actually do it.”
Jonathan Rowe, South Dunedin Future Programme manager, said the strategic property acquisition idea came after conversations with the community.
“We’ve heard that people want to stay in South Dunedin, they’re worried about their home and community being ‘red-stickered’ or ‘red-zoned’, and they want some certainty.’’
Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
People walk along St Clair Beach in Dunedin, near exposed sand sausages.
“This approach could help South Dunedin get ahead of the problem, be more resilient, provide certainty and reassurance to the community, and save ratepayers and taxpayers money in the long term.”
In the short term, property could be retained, potentially rented to maintain housing supply and provide a revenue stream to offset some of the costs.
Those purchased properties could be used for a range of adaptation projects – pumps or pipes, parks or wetlands, or new more resilient housing developments.
“If we start acquiring property today, it will give us more options tomorrow, meaning we’ll be better placed to build a new pipe, expand a park, or move a house – whatever is required to make South Dunedin a safer and better place to be,” Radich said
Hamish McNeilly/Stuff
Dunedin mayor Jules Radich.
A draft indicative business case has been submitted to Treasury, with estimated costs up to $132 million over an initial five-year period. That was based on buying 65 properties a year.
“Our proposal is proactive and ambitious. This is not something the DCC could do alone and would require support from central government,” Radich said.
In 2015, around 1200 homes and businesses were damaged by flooding with insurance payouts topping $28m, but the cost of the event was much higher.
Insurer IAG estimated the economic damage at $64m and the social damage at $18m, a combined cost of $138m.
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