After the deluge: Waitakere rallies against urbanisation laws

April 6, 2023

After the deluge: Waitakere rallies against urbanisation laws

Plan Change 78 paves the way for further high rises like this Glen Eden apartment block. Photo: Callum Tasker

Waitakere Board members are calling for a halt to proposed urbanisation plans, amid concerns about future damage from flooding and landslides.

Cyclone Gabrielle devastated parts of West Auckland but a proposed zoning law change disproportionately allocates higher density housing in many of its suburbs.

It also approves intensification in many low-lying flood plains and areas, at risk of landslides.

Intensification would “increase both the speed and volume of stormwater run-off, with further risk of flooding and slips,” argued board member Sandra Coney when recently proposing a motion to halt the change.

She also called for an independent audit of Auckland's zoning laws as well as the halt to the controversial Plan Change 78, at a February's board meeting.

The removal of trees would also heighten the risk of slips, Coney suggested, given the vital role of forest roots in preventing soil erosion.

In contrast to the flooded urbanised zones like Henderson and Glen Eden, the adjacent Waitakere Ranges Regional Park was relatively unharmed by Cyclone Gabrielle.

“The Waitākere Ranges didn't suffer much impact,” said Ark in the Park Coordinator Eduardo Colley, whose organization leads conservation efforts in the region.

“The forest was pretty resilient to any damage. We reported some slips and tree falls, but nothing different from what normally happens in a wet season, like most of winter and spring.

However, where the forest was removed or heavily altered, for example, in the park buffer zone, houses and roads were severely impacted.”

NZ Geological Society former chairman Ross Roberts acknowledged that urbanisation upstream of low-lying areas like Huapai, could exacerbate flooding in those areas during heavy rainfall.

But he disagreed that urbanisation had played a major role in the extent of landslides.

“If you look at all the landslides that have occurred in places like Murawai and Piha, the vast majority of those weren’t driven by any urbanisation effect,” Roberts said.

“You could argue some of them would have been less severe if there was dense forest there, but that’s not really the driver.”

However, “when you’re talking about flooding, it’s different,” he added.

Plan Change 78 is currently going through hearings and Environment Minister David Parker is currently consulting with his ministry on whether to halt it until an independent audit’s completion.

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