Every Hamilton flood risk property to be assessed

The 28,000 Hamilton property owners who recently received letters from Hamilton City Council regarding new flood modelling work are being reassured that each property will be individually assessed to determine the possible impact of flooding.

The outcome of this assessment, by a qualified engineer, and based on Council’s flood modelling work, will mean some properties will not need to have any flood impact information noted on their LIM (Land Information Memorandum). Until this work has been done it is not possible to know how many properties will require this information to be included in their LIM.

Once individual property assessments have been completed all 28,000 property owners will be written to again to let them know the outcome of the assessment. For those properties with some impact this information will go on LIMs applied for from May.

The flood modelling work was undertaken as part of the Draft District Plan review process which feedback is presently being sought on. It was commissioned by the Council to give it a better understanding of what properties are most at risk of flooding in the event of a significant storm. A significant storm has a 1 per cent chance of happening in any given year, and it is believed the last significant storm of this nature in Hamilton was in 1958.

Of the 28,000 identified properties, around 6,000 are at high risk. Properties classified as high risk would be subject to more stringent planning requirements. However property owners who were not seeking to do alterations did not need to take any action.

City Planning Manager Robert Hodges says: “It is important people understand that while there is only a small possibility people might be affected by a flooding event, the Council is legally required to let people know of that possibility.

“We are aware the letters we sent have generated some concern from some property owners unsure what the impact could mean for their own property. We are working hard to explain this in person at our open days, through phone calls we have received and via our online information.

“We do however apologise to anyone who may have found it difficult to readily make contact with us, and we now have more staff taking calls, available at our open days and we have improved our presentation of map and flood related information online."

Maps detailing the flood risk are available on the Council’s website here.

Property owners with further questions are being urged to attend the two remaining  Open Days or to contact Council directly on 838 6909.

Open Days:

Monday, April 30, Western Community Centre, Hyde Ave, Nawton 2pm-7pm
Tuesday, May 1, Knox Christian Centre, Albert St, Hamilton East, 2pm-7pm