Council buys five riverside properties
The Christchurch City Council has spent $1.37 million buying five properties at risk of flooding along the Heathcote River.
The move is part of a $16.5m buyout of riverside homes, including some that have flooded above the floor four times since 2010 and
2011 earthquakes.
The council has so far identified
24 properties as being eligible for a buyout under the council’s Flood Intervention Policy (FIP), council land drainage acting manager Tim Joyce said.
He said 20 offers had been made and 14 have been accepted, but only five purchases had been completed so far. Ten were still being negotiated.
Joyce would not say exactly where the homes were and did not provide a breakdown of the cost paid for each property.
‘‘For privacy reasons, we aren’t disclosing any more specific details about these properties.’’
Residents have called on the council to do something about the flooding in the area, with many reporting high levels of anxiety when it rains.
At least two homeowners have reported being unable to get insurance for flooding unless the council could demonstrate it was undertaking works to reduce the risk.
Homeowners have 12 months to accept the voluntary offer.
The purchase price for the properties was capped at $750,000 for individual houses and $500,000 per unit.
The buyouts were part of a more than $70m programme to address flooding issues in the area.
The council decided earlier this year to fast-track a $16.5m dredging programme that would remove about 60,000 cubic metres of material from a 4 kilometre stretch of the river by 2020. That was enough mud and silt to fill 24 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Staff would also continue work on four new storage basins in the Upper Heathcote at a cost of $41m.
It was not known what the council would do with the properties. In some cases, the vacant sites could be appropriate for sale, but even if resold, no new structures could be built because the properties were in a high flood hazard management area.