Council looks to buy property to boost Feilding floodway

Properties in Feilding may need to be bought by a council to protect a fast-growing section of the Manawatu¯ town from flooding.

Horizons Regional Council wants to increase the capacity and use of the Reid Line floodway.

The floodgates are designed to protect Feilding residents during a one-in-100-year flood event, but the council wants to upgrade that further.

River management group manager Ramon Strong said the floodway was working, but was not quite fit for future purposes.

‘‘With the rapid growth of Feilding towards there, there is a great need for urgency with the upgrades. It’s a critical area to protect.’’

The council’s work would shape the floodway to remove culverts passing through a stopbank and increase a stopbank height.

The council also wanted to buy the land the floodway was on, as it was privately owned, Strong said.

‘‘Since it’s sitting on private land, we don’t have the power to control land use.’’

One person in the area had apparently started forming motocross tracks near the floodway, and there was potential for people to do things such as plant trees on the floodway, Strong said.

‘‘It’s their land and they are entitled to do what they want, as long as it complies with the law.

‘‘But that’s not compatible with an operational floodway.’’

The council started talking to landowners about voluntary purchase in 2017, and most seemed willing, Strong said.

The council has budgeted $7.6 million in its Long-term Plan for the work and land purchases, which would be loan-funded and repaid over 15 years.

The money to repay the loan would be split 80/20 between a targeted rate to Feilding houses and a regional river and drainage rate, respectively.

Alternative options were to do nothing, or construct floodbanks along the Ma¯ kino Stream through Feilding, although the council did not think either of those were viable.

Stopbanking would be far more expensive, but doing nothing left Feilding vulnerable to significant flooding.