Canterbury Earthquake Recovery: Rockfalls

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• The extended section 124 notices issued under the modified provisions of the Building Act have and continue to cause considerable frustration and difficulty for many Port Hills home owners. They are prohibited from entering their homes because of the risk posed by the land rather than the buildings they own; and the land is generally public land rather than their private land; little mitigation work has been done in the Port Hills; and the City Council has had engineering advice that removing or reducing the risk is not feasible.
• Affected homeowners are effectively locked into their current position until at least April 2016 when it the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act will be repealed. (The Green party would repeal it sooner). Central Government should as a matter of urgency develop criteria for the council to use in deciding whether a notice can be removed. If the notices are to stay then the Crown should offer home and landowners a buy out and compensation on the basis of 100% of 2007 pre earthquake valuations.
• Considerable work has been done to identify areas of the Port Hills at risk of landslip and rockfall. The review of the City Plan should ensure that future building and other development avoids areas of rockfall and landslip risk and does not exacerbate it. (more here)

• Labour will partner with the Council to invest in protecting properties at risk of rockfall and let families stay in their homes. Fencing and/or bunding can be installed to shield homes from falling boulders. We will protect the homes, rather than knock them down.
• Labour will share the cost of protecting homes equally with the Council, where it doesn’t significantly exceed the red-zone buy-out and deconstruction costs that the Crown and Council would otherwise incur.
• Labour will allow Crown-owned land to be used for rockfall protection works. This will help to reduce costs in some instances and increase the number of homes that can be protected.
• Labour will also ensure that the value of protecting CERA-owned property is counted when assessing the benefits of proposed protection work. That will fully recognise the value gained from rockfall protection work.
• This policy will be cost-neutral, possibly even releasing net savings for the Crown and Council. What the Crown and the Council spend on rockfall protection systems will be saved by not having to pay to buy-out at-risk homes. (more here)

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