Council proposes to move beach community amid sea level rise

In a first for New Zealand, a council’s begun work that could see an entire beachside community relocated to higher ground due to sea level rise.

The proposal at Amberley Beach, around 35km north of Christchurch, is quickly becoming a national test case.

It has also invoked fury from some of the residents, seen in a fiery community meeting this week where one local claimed he’d been given a "message of doom".

The settlement is currently protected by an earth bund, built up at the back of the beach.

Many of the homes there are former baches, in a prime location just metres away from the water. It’s an idyllic spot, but in recent years that closeness has become a double-edged sword due to the threat of sea level rise.

In response to projections of a rising sea, the Hurunui District Council has developed a plan that gives owners of 109 properties at the beach the option to take up land at a new location.

It has purchased a $3.8 million section further up the coast, around 20m above sea level and more than a kilometre from the ocean.

In an interview with 1News this week, Hurunui District Council chief executive Hamish Dobbie said moving to the new area was one of many options residents had under the council’s Coastal Adaptation Plan.

"If the community comes to a point where it decides that it wants to move, or some of the community want to move to that new land, then the opportunity is there for them to do that," he said.

That plan is well advanced with council staff currently working on an application to rezone part of the land, formerly a working farm called Rosewood.

It wants to create a new subdivision of around 240 properties – more than twice the size of the existing Amberley Beach village.

Dobbie’s plan is to sell around half of the new properties on the open market to cover the cost of development.

"You've got to put in streets and lights and pipes and all those sorts of things, so there's roughly about an $18 million cost to doing the development of the land," he said.

"So, if we build 100 extra sections, let's say, and we sell them for $200,000 each, that would bring in $20 million, which would cover off the development costs."

The development work would be financed by the council up front with debt, obtained through a $23.5 million sustainability loan from the Local Government Funding Agency.

That would leave the other half of the properties available for the current residents of Amberley Beach.

The council has offered to give them a replacement piece of land in the new subdivision for a fee of around $11,000 each. That can be paid up front, or as a dollar a day over the next 30 years.

"Those sections could be stapled to their titles here, if that's the path they chose to go down," Dobbie said.

While that’s well under market value, some residents believe it’s an offer with a significant catch.

It’s just bare land. They would have to fund the cost of rebuilding or relocating a house themselves, potentially wiping out hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity in their current homes.

At a community meeting in the council’s chambers last Thursday, it was clear many of the residents were frustrated.

Council staff, who called the meeting to discuss the rezoning proposal, were interrupted within minutes by an irate local demanding they send more information out by email.

Staff later acknowledged to the crowd of around 30 residents, many sitting with arms folded, that there was "a whole lot of future issues that we need to resolve” and they were "committed to doing that".

When a question-and-answer session began, one resident stood up in front of the group and said he had some comments to make.

During his roughly three-minute speech, the local said it was the homeowners who "inevitably takes a huge hit".

"It can only be justified as a last resort apocalypse situation," he said, turning to face the whole chamber.

"It gives the message of doom to the public at large and to insurance companies."

He finished to applause from the room.

Senior council staff standing at the front of the chamber, including Dobbie and Hurunui mayor Marie Black, were then repeatedly challenged by about a dozen locals over the course of half an hour.

"Shifting a place up to a new subdivision is not a simple answer, it won't work," one said.

Others criticised the council's proposed ballot system where locals would not have their choice of section but would be assigned at random.

Things took a turn when one resident, an older woman, began challenged Black about a comment she claimed had been made at a previous meeting.

It was the same person who had interrupted at the beginning of the session.

Dobbie, the council’s chief executive, jumped in before Black could answer.

"I’m the person that you're saying said that," he replied.

Turning to face Dobbie, the resident quipped, "I’m looking at you".

With the crowd watching, Dobbie then asked the woman to "shh for a bit".

She replied, “don’t treat me like s**t”. The chief executive retorted “do you want an answer or not?”

By the time the resident had responded, saying "I’m waiting for an un-arrogant answer", council staff had intervened to shut it down. All participants were asked to keep conversation "at a level that is actually professional".

A few more questions and answers followed before Black tried to wrap the discussion up with a summary.

She was interrupted partway through by a person at the back of the room, who shouted "you’re taking us back to the start".

The mayor promptly ended the session.

Afterwards the spokesperson for the Amberley Beach Residents' and Ratepayers' Community Association, Paula Le Compte, explained the passion in the room.

"People's value in their homes has been extinguished, as well as the title, as they purchase one of the sections," she said.

"So, it's a huge loss for them. It might be a $700,000, $800,000 property. And they end up with a piece of empty land."

Earlier in the day, Dobbie had defended the proposal in an interview with 1News.

Standing in the Amberley Beach community, with the late-day sun hovering warmly overhead, the council's chief executive said the offer was just one of several options available to the community as they worked through their coastal adaption plan.

Other possibilities included continuing to reinforce the earth bund that was currently protecting the community from the waves.

Dobbie said residents could choose not to go.

"No one's twisting their arm. No one's forcing them. All we're doing is creating an option that provides a future pathway for them," he said.

"They’re essentially getting a cut of the land development to fund their sections. They're paying $11,000 for a $200,000 section."

He did not dispute that it was a heavy financial hit for a resident to take due to the need to relocate or rebuild.

"I agree, however the alternative is do nothing and see what happens," he said.

He added the residents could "roll the dice" if they wanted to.

Despite what he described as "some loud voices", Dobbie said the council felt it had the support of most of the people at the beach.

"If they choose to stay, they stay and deal with the consequences of their decision. If they choose to go, then they've got some different things to deal with," he said.

Asked whether the council would allow people to stay at the beach long term, he said yes – with a caveat.

"So long as the hazard doesn't become completely intolerable," he replied.

Meanwhile residents said they were concerned about the process the council was running, with many questions about how the proposal would be fair for all.

"We're often rebuffed when we're trying to ask those questions," Le Compte said.

"We just don't want to see that being rushed."

In response, Dobbie said the council had done "a huge amount of work" on consultation.

"There's always dissenting voices in anything you do," he replied.

Many other communities across the country will be watching closely as they also face the sceptre of sea level rise.

The proposal is the first of its kind in New Zealand, according to researcher Nicholas Cradock-Henry of Earth Sciences.

Cradock-Henry is currently working on a research project looking at the ways various communities, around New Zealand and the world, are adapting to sea level rise.

He said that New Zealand was "in many ways flying blind".

"When we're talking about homes and households and people's lives and livelihoods that have been built in a place, those can be very difficult conversations to have," he said.

"They might have very strong ties to a particular place. They may have raised children there."

There were very few examples internationally of communities that had successfully implemented adaption action, he added.

"Councils, in some ways, are building the plane as we fly. They are trying to do the best they can.

"I think there will be a lot of people watching and observing what happens here – what have they done right, what could be improved, and how can we scale those lessons up to other parts of the country."

He said his "hat went off" to both the council and the residents at Amberley Beach.

"I think they're in a tough position, and I'm excited to see where they go."

One thing they were doing well was taking a "long view", Cradock-Henry said.

"This is not going to happen tomorrow. It's not even going to happen the next 10 years. But by taking action now, they're really beginning to prepare themselves for sort of mid-century – 20, 30, 40 years from now – when it will actually be sort of on their doorstep, so to speak."

The researcher added that New Zealand could not afford to keep "delaying these things until tomorrow".

"Every small action, no matter what the step is, is a bit towards that future progress," he said.