A slip in Titirangi, caused by the 2023 Auckland Anniversary weekend storm. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Auckland councillors have approved a policy guiding the future use of storm affected land, which will see a large amount of land retained for flood resilience, and opportunities for selling land for safe redevelopment.
The council was expected to purchase 1215 high-risk homes by the end of 2025 - as part of the buyout shared with the government, costing $1.2 billion.
The sale of more than 600 Category 3 properties have been settled as of March, and the demolition of storm affected homes is ongoing.
The policy principles establish "risk management" as the first priority, and sets out that decisions on land-use will ensure that land will only be repurposed where it can be done in a way that accounts for risks.
"While we want to use the land effectively to provide homes and maintain strong communities, safety will always be our top priority," said councillor Richard Hills, chairperson of the policy and planning committee.
Council said that under the policy, it will retain a large number of properties for flood resilience projects and other council services.
It said it will also consider opportunities to sell some properties that can be safely re-developed.
The policy sets out that council will be making land-use decisions after assessing the sites individually.
Hills said it would take several years before final decisions were made due to the number of properties that need to be assessed - a factor which he acknowledged will be frustrating for affected communities.
Council's initial analysis of the first 300 purchased properties suggested that 30 percent could be sold for redevelopment after applying engineering solutions to flood and landslide risk.
Although the advice said 70 percent of that land would have very low value.
The analysis showed another 30 percent could be sold for private green space development, including to be used to improve flood resilience.
It said twenty percent would be retained by council for hazard management.
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