Disaster plan gets green light from WCC
A strategy to deal with major disasters, which could lead to a bylaw forcing Wellingtonians to earthquake strengthen their properties, will proceed to the next stage of development.
Wellington City councillors were presented with a draft of the capital’s resilience strategy at a meeting on Wednesday. They voted unanimously to proceed to the next stage of having a final version drawn up.
The WCC document contains 30 ideas for dealing with the four big shocks that are the biggest threats to the capital’s prosperity: a major earthquake; the growing frequency of storms and rising sea levels; a massive economic downturn; and quality of life being eroded by a housing crisis.
The proposed solutions include new regulations that would require homeowners to secure their chimneys, joists and verandas.
The strategy would also make it compulsory for new homes and apartments in the capital to be built with solar panels, emergency water tanks and bike spaces.
A new targeted rate is another possibility facing residents. This money would go into a fund to be spent, when needed, on initiatives to combat sea-level rise, such as building sea walls or elevating homes.
Wellington Mayor Celia WadeBrown said the Canterbury earthquakes had put resilience planning at the top of the capital’s agenda.
She urged the next council to get on with the job of making Wellington safer. ‘‘If we take this seriously, then there are going to be some challenges ahead.’’
Councillor Simon Marsh agreed that Wellington’s next council was going to have to make some ‘‘really hard’’ decisions that some people wouldn’t like down the line. He also urged councillors not to abandon the disaster planning in the face of that.
‘‘We’ve got to keep this thing moving forward … we’ve got to make certain that people realise there’s a certain level of personal responsibility with this.’’
Paul Eagle said making Wellington’s houses more earthquake-proof needed to be the priority. Some of the changes being proposed were quite transformational so it was important that residents remained part of the conversation, he added.
Andy Foster said the capital needed a solid plan in place to make sure it did not end up like Christchurch after its big earthquake - with the South Island city still struggling to function six years later. ‘‘Because we wouldn’t have a region functioning, and we can’t afford that.’’
A final version of the resilience strategy will be drawn up for approval by councillors next year. Public feedback will be sought on any initiatives requiring major funding through the Annual Plan process.