Hundreds of new builds in Auckland flood zones as councils wait on planning reform

Another 1500 houses have been consented in flood zones in Auckland in the last year, as the city marks two years since unprecedented rain damaged or destroyed thousands of homes.

The government says a national directive designed to give councils a stronger mandate to turn down such consents is coming this year.

In the meantime, an Auckland councillor says the council has already introduced stricter requirements for consent-holders to protect new builds against current and future flood risk.

Last year, RNZ reported that 1415 new homes had been given the go-ahead in known flood plains since the Anniversary Day flooding - more than 10 percent of residential consents granted between February and November 2023.

Since then, the council has consented a further 1505 dwellings in flood plains, and the consenting rate in both flood zones and other hazard zones has not changed.

Of the nearly 14,000 homes granted consent across the region in the year to October, 11.8 percent sat within a flood plain.

Once other threats were included - including erosion, coastal flooding and tsunamis - 14.4 percent of new consents were exposed to natural hazards.

Thousands more houses in flood risk zones could still be in the pipeline. The 5000-home Sunfield development on the southern outskirts of Auckland, which lies partly within a flood plain, is among projects confirmed for fast-tracking by the government.

Councillor Richard Hills, who chairs the council's policy and planning committee, said he understood it was "triggering" for people to see new housing go up in areas that had previously flooded.

"Often what they don't see is stronger requirements around flooding. Not all is lost - if they see housing pop up it doesn't necessarily mean that it's unsafe."

Before the floods, which dumped 300mm of rain on the region in less than 24 hours, the council could already require consent-holders to lower the risk to new builds in a flood zone, through measures like raising floor levels or installing stormwater retention tanks.

Since then, the council had introduced further requirements that took into account future climate change, Hills said.

"There's this 3.8 degree of warming measurement, which requires consent holders to prove that they can withhold a flood if the world warms [by] 3.8 degrees - so pretty extensive."

What Auckland Council needed now was a national directive from the government about how to approach granting consents in hazard zones, along with permission to rezone certain areas with a high risk of flooding, he said.

The government had agreed to both, but the timing was still up in the air.

"We've had an indication from [RMA Reform minister Chris Bishop] that it could be the end of this year but we're asking … how we could move that forward and make a bespoke, Auckland-focused law or national policy statement change that would allow us to hurry up."

The zoning changes would be controversial and require community consultation, Hills said.

"There's lots of people demanding we stop building in flood plains and other hazard zones, but what it will mean for some members of our community is that suddenly their home or their piece of land's maybe worth a lot less because they're not allowed to build to [the extent] they used to," he said.

"Natural justice needs to play out on that."

The council had to be proactive, though, he said.

"We're spending upwards of $2 billion to buy out almost 1200 homes [from 2023]. We cannot afford as a city to continually go around buying out properties every time there's a disaster."

A national policy statement on natural hazard decision-making - which could offer stronger direction to all councils - was first drafted in 2023 under the previous Labour government.

Bishop introduced the current government's second RMA Amendment Bill late last year, which would "enable councils to decline land-use consents, or apply conditions on consents, where the natural hazard risk is significant".

In a written statement, Bishop told RNZ that decisions on next steps were expected this year.

"The new national direction on natural hazards that we will be issuing, will provide a nationally consistent framework for addressing the risks posed by these hazards, including increased risk from climate change.

"In the meantime, councils hold statutory powers that they can use to manage risks from natural hazards and to ensure that these risks are considered in planning and resource consent processes."

Professor Bruce Glavovic, a natural hazards planning expert at Massey University, said it would take more than that to prevent ongoing development in hazard zones.

"There's a tremendous necessity to create opportunities for new, affordable housing and so we find ourselves tempted to compromise in some of those location decisions and allow people to build either on steep slopes or earthquake fault lines or next to rivers."

Densification was one answer, but there were "many caveats", he said.

"Not the least of which is [to] plan well, and be sure that you're not densifying in an area that's prone to an extreme event."

Last year, Parliament's finance and expenditure select committee released its report into climate adaptation, following a cross-party inquiry.

Among its recommendations were that funding support to property owners in hazard zones should be predictable, principled, fair, and rules-based; that the Crown should minimise long-term costs from exposure to natural hazards; and that the government should act to address failures in the housing, financial, and insurance markets.

However, some of the committee's own members called the report vague and said it avoided the most challenging questions.

The government's response to the report is expected to be released this week.

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