Building consents in flood zones questioned by councillors

The Auckland anniversary floods renewed calls from councillors to look at building consents in potentially hazardous areas, including flood plains, flood prone areas, inundation and erosion zones. 

At the Planning, Environment and Parks committee on February 9, Cr Chris Darby noticed a new section in council’s latest monthly housing update which showed in the past year, 10 percent of new dwelling consents were in hazard zones.

The latest February report showed 214 dwellings consented in December were within hazard zones – 16 percent of the dwelling consents for the month.

Cr Darby said this was a wake-up call. 

“We have got to act on this information,” he said.

He said tens of thousands of people had moved into hazard zones and may not understand the risks of where they are living.

Darby said he had heard the Anniversary Weekend floods described as ‘unprecedented’, implying that nothing could have been done to prevent what occurred. 

He said it seemed like that was an excuse. 

Chief of strategy Megan Tyler admitted that the policy settings that allow building consents in hazard zones may need to change. 

“We are looking at those policy settings in the Unitary Plan because maybe they, or our design standards, are not good enough anymore,” Tyler said. 

Cr Sharon Stewart said she had been ‘a broken record’ with her concerns around flooding. 

“I said that allowing development to go onto flood plains would one day come home to bite us, and it has happened,” Cr Stewart said. 

Cr Stewart was among several councillors who suggested Auckland needs a moratorium on building consents in flood prone areas.

Mayor Wayne Brown expressed concerns about Aucklanders “lawyering up” to transfer blame to council for flood damage to their properties. 

“There are a number of places where we have seen inappropriate forms of construction and inappropriate intensification efforts in valleys.” 

He said there were developments that had been turned down by council but developers can try to override that by challenging the decision in the Environment Court.

Council staff will report back to committee on March 2 with the scope of the Auckland Anniversary floods investigation and its next steps.