More waiting for owners of earthquake-prone buildings
Officials have put off consulting building owners over timeframes to fix earthquake-prone buildings in Manawatu¯ , but warn the problem won’t go away.
The Manawatu¯ District Council will decide whether to adopt priority areas early next year. It originally proposed to go ahead with the process this month.
Councillors were split 5-5 at a strategic planning and policy committee meeting yesterday, with chairman Phil Marsh using his casting vote to pass the motion. Councillors Hillary Humphrey, Andrew Quarrie, Barbara Cameron and Alison Short voted against.
If priority areas were adopted, building owners on busy roads or footpaths would have 71⁄2 years to fix or demolish their buildings. If rejected, they would have 15 years.
Buildings such as medical centres, police stations and schools will still be considered priority buildings and have reduced timeframes.
The decision to postpone comes after a meeting with Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa, where a forum of mayors from Tararua, Whanganui, Rangitı¯kei and Manawatu¯ District advocated on the behalf of provincial building owners.
They explained the proposed timelines were too tight and that legislation, rather than an earthquake, would decimate rural towns.
Salesa agreed to review how the law affected rural towns, where commercial rents were much lower than in cities.
Mayor Helen Worboys said the sensible option was to wait until Salesa came back with changes, before officials invited public submissions on priority areas.
‘‘We owe it to ourselves [to wait]. We’ve led this charge and I believe we need to keep doing that. For us to not . . . makes a mockery of the effort we’ve made with neighbouring councils.’’
Deputy mayor Michael Ford said there were about 90 earthquake-prone buildings in Feilding and most of them were heritage listed. ‘‘That changes things.’’
Ford said the Palmerston North City Council had priority areas, but rents for commercial buildings were higher and fewer were earthquake-prone.
Short said the council had been ‘‘planning to’’ notify building owners whether their structures were earthquakeprone for 10 years.
The Rangitı¯kei District Council opted not to adopt priority areas last year, after receiving an overwhelming ‘‘no’’ from building owners.