Rather, a property acquisition plan would be recommended to ensure a fair process for any purchases, ideally done on a voluntary basis in the comingnext 25 years.
The matter was raised at Thursday’s Dunedin City Council meeting as elected members considered the next steps of the South Dunedin Future programme, intended to manage long-term flood risk in the area.
Three shortlisted options, released earlier this month, included the proposed purchase and demolition of between 1100 and 1700 houses in the area, making way for public works such as canals, pumping stations and green spaces.
The possible forced acquisition of properties became a hot button topic among those concerned the options were not focused enough on engineering solutions that could save homes.
After more than three hours of discussion and debate on Thursday, and following a similar decision by programme partner the Otago Regional Council, city councillors voted to include a ‘‘pipes and pumps’’ adaptation option in public consultation, alongside the shortlisted options and the status quo.
Cr Andrew Simms asked chief in-house legal counsel Karilyn Canton to comment on the proposed property acquisitions under the Public Works Act, in an effort to address social media ‘‘misinformation’’ .
Ms Canton said the Act was designed to be fair to landowners, who were entitled to acquisition at full market value and a range of other compensations.
‘‘This council, in terms of any Public Works Act process, will be ensuring that it follows the proper Public Works Act process and ... if the council decides that it does in fact want to purchase any properties, will actively be working with landowners to ensure that an agreement is reached,’’ Ms Canton said.
‘‘This is not a situation where the council will be looking to go in and wave a heavy stick. This is not that scenario at all.’’
She noted the plans were proposed and impacted areas were indicative only, but said if the council went ahead with acquisitions, it had a statutory obligation to consider alternatives before taking any land by compulsion.
Compulsory provisions applied only when the acquisition was deemed ‘‘reasonably necessary’’ under legislation, she said.
Cr Russell Lund asked how compensation accounted for the impact of publicly identifying proposed areas of acquisition.
Ms Canton said provisions of the Act meant ‘‘you effectively don’t take account of the fact that it’s being purchased for a public work’’.
‘‘If land acquisition is on the table, and there’s a lot of decision-making to go before we actually get to that stage, I would be recommending to this council that a land acquisition plan be developed to think about exactly those sorts of issues, to ensure that we do run a very fair process.
‘‘This is not a scenario where the council is trying to disadvantage anyone.’’
Earlier this month, South Dunedin Future programme manager Jonathan Rowe said the intention was any acquisition would be done during the next 25 years, on a voluntary basis where possible.
Cr Simms asked if the council stood by a statement given to the Otago Daily Times in 2023, that no-one would be forced from their homes in property buy-ups for the programme’s work.
‘‘The intent in that statement, I think, still exists, but the detail is still to be confirmed,’’ Mr Rowe said.
City services manager Scott MacLean said the programme was ‘‘very iterative’’ — the council was operating with different understanding and information than in 2023.
‘‘Yeah, I’ll take that as a no then,’’ Cr Simms said.
Mr Rowe said councillors could direct staff to ‘‘rationalise, minimise [and] eliminate property acquisition’’, but there could be implications for costs or risk level.
University of Otago research showed South Dunedin’s high flood risk level had an impact on depressing house values, he said.
As the programme had identified options to mitigate and manage risk, there was an expectation it would sustain long-term property values in South Dunedin, he said.
‘‘That said, it’s fully acknowledged that the transition process is very challenging, and it will involve very difficult conversations with a range of stakeholders, and that that would reasonably be expected to have an impact on property values.’’
