Dunedin councillors clash over plan for flood-prone community

An under-fire plan to help South Dunedin adapt to climate change hazards will remain on the agenda despite councillors calling for it to be removed.

The long-running South Dunedin Future programme has proposed three potential options for the low-lying community, ranging from raising land and pumping water, creating wetlands and canals, and shifting out of harm's way.

They included potentially buying up to 1700 properties to make way for specific public works, land raising or new green spaces over the next few decades.

The proposals were publicly released last week, with the Dunedin City and Otago Regional councils expected to vote on whether to consult the community about options this week.

But this has been challenged by Dunedin councillors Jo Galer and Russell Lund who claim a public-excluded workshop on the project compromised the democratic process on 10 June.

They said they were not given enough time to read the information, not allowed to oppose an embargoed media briefing, not able to stop properties that might be bought out from being identified before residents were given a heads up, councillors were forced to endorse the options for consultation, and the meeting should not have been held behind closed doors.

The "nightmare scenario came true" when residents discovered their homes were in areas marked for possible property acquisition during briefings or through media reports, they said.

They sought a public apology, for all the South Dunedin Future information to be removed from the council's website and a new policy on workshops in an email sent to other elected members and media.

Dunedin City Council chief executive Sandy Graham said the South Dunedin item would remain on the agenda for Thursday's meeting in an email sent to elected members and media on Tuesday night.

There was a clear mandate for the work and the current stage of the process had been well signalled, Graham said.

Legal advice from Simpson Grierson found that the options presented were appropriate and adequate as the council was being asked only to endorse community consultation, not choose a preferred or final option, she said.

The advice, which was included in the email, found there did not appear to be any risk of predetermination, but it would be important for councillors to remain open to considering other options.

There has been 12 papers presented to the council since 2021 with both councils signing off on a programme plan and strategy along with community consultation and regular progress reports.

The report was released well in advance because staff wanted to give councillors more than a week to read it and the South Dunedin Future has been run as an open and transparent process over several years, she said.

Graham said very few workshops were help in public excluded, but these were the reasons:

to avoid prejudice to measures protecting the health or safety of members of the public

to avoid prejudice to measures that prevent or mitigate material loss to members of the public

maintain legal professional privilege

information will soon be publicly available

"Regarding the reference by some elected members to the report being "climate alarmism" along with indulging Māori, I reject these assertions and find it discourteous to iwi, staff, and scientific consultants," she said.

The costs for the three different futures range from $1.6 billion to $2.4b over 100 years, but modelling indicated they would be lower than the status quo.

Councillor Andrew Simms has also called for a "baseline engineering solution" to also be added to the options on the table.

Sandy Graham said this solution was already incorporated into the three shortlisted futures with the estimated costs of between $358m-$363m for stormwater and groundwater networks, pump stations, and outfalls from 2025 to 2050.

Jonathan Rowe, who leads the South Dunedin Future programme, told media last week that the marked areas for potential buyouts was indicative only and there were plenty of opportunities for consultation.

The aim was to buy properties once they entered the free market from willing sellers over decades and to create hundreds of new homes to help people to stay in the area, he said.

"There is property acquisition for the purpose of public works so we only need to buy property in order to build a pump station or a water detention basin or a canal that then provides a broader community benefit in terms of risk reduction," he said.