Coromandel residents views sought on final flood protection plan

Coromandel town central business district and Hauraki Road ratepayers are being asked for their views on a new flood protection proposal.

The plan comes after Environment Waikato and Thames-Coromandel District Council began working with the local community on beefing up flood protection in the wake of the 2002 weather bomb. Since then, some flood protection measures have already been implemented.

Now the Peninsula Project – involving EW, TCDC, the Department of Conservation and the Hauraki Maori Trust Board - is seeking views on doing more work. A newsletter and submission form are going out to about 200 ratepayers on the proposal, which has been included in EW’s draft 2009-19 Long-Term Council Community Plan.

EW’s Peninsula Project spokesperson Julie Beaufill said the new proposal followed several years of consultation and consideration, and is based on a recommendation from the Coromandel-Colville Community Board. It will be the community’s final opportunity to gain support for flood protection, she said.

“The proposed flood protection works are relatively limited in scale as community consultation has indicated a general reluctance in the community to fund significant further works,” said Ms Beaufill.

However, the community board has recommended that stopbanks be constructed on the right and left banks of the Karaka Stream, upstream and downstream of the Kapanga Road bridge, to provide protection to the upper and middle CBD. The cost is estimated at $185,000.

“This would provide protection to those upper and middle CBD areas but still leave the lower CBD, and Hauraki and Wharf roads, at a high risk from flooding by the Whangarahi Stream. There would be a reliance on proposed new TCDC planning controls to manage development in at-risk areas,” Ms Beaufill said.

If the plan goes ahead, funding for the work would be shared between central Government (25 per cent), regional rates (10 per cent), the targeted Peninsula catchment rate (15 per cent) and a local benefit community rate (50 per cent).

Ratepayers directly protected by new stopbanks would pay between $12 and $70 per $100,000 of capital value (CV) per year from 1 July 2010, while there would be an indirect benefit rate for people in the wider town of 53c per $100,000 CV.

Ms Beaufill said post-weather bomb central Government funding made available for engineering works and property purchase was due to expire mid-year and was unlikely to be available again if the community chose not to support the proposal.

For more information, contact Julie Beaufill on 0800 800 401 or email julie.beaufill@ew.govt.nz.