Whether you choose a proverb often attributed to Pliny the Elder or song lyrics belonging to either Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young or Madness respectively, you get the picture of the importance of home.
In this mind-bending, wearying and worrying world, everyone deserves a safe haven where they can retreat, regroup and dream with family and friends, away from the many pettifogging bureaucracies of the world beyond the front door.
Any threat to that security, that future, hits extremely hard. The fact the purveyors of that bureaucracy can still, legally, take away that sanctuary, your place, seems unjust.
That unfortunate reality has uncomfortably come a step closer for some Dunedin residents with the release this week of the latest details of the South Dunedin Future programme, run jointly by the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Regional Council.
The long-term programme was set up after the highly damaging floods of June 2015 with the intention of coming up with a masterplan to deal with flooding in the area by 2100, at a cost of billions of dollars.
In March last year, the programme released seven possible adaptation futures for the area, which is home for 14,000 residents and more than 1000 businesses. Since then, following consultation and community feedback, that has been whittled down to the three options laid out this week.
Few could argue that South Dunedin can carry on the way it is. The malign influence of climate change, with rising sea-levels and more frequent severe rainstorms, is going to have an increasing impact on the suburbs on the flat. Some Caversham residents also have to endure another quite separate issue, with raw sewage flowing down their streets after heavy rain, due to inadequate wastewater systems.
When it comes to potential flooding, it wouldn’t be fair to leave so many residents in a huge state of anxiety every time a decent easterly or southeasterly begins moving across the Otago coast. Neither can councils turn a blind eye to the likely problems of insurers refusing to cover the homes of thousands because the risk of flooding damage is too high.
The three options outlined by programme manager Jonathan Rowe are ‘‘protect’’, at an estimated cost of $2.098 billion and involving the demolition of 1190 buildings; ‘‘restore’’, costing $1.629b with 1162 buildings demolished; and ‘‘reshape’’, the most transformative of the three, at a cost of $2.448b, with 1738 demolitions and 44.5ha of land raised.
Councillors at both councils are scheduled to discuss the options next week and then there will be extensive public consultation, expected to run from July 1 to August 9.
An adaptation masterplan will then go before the DCC and ORC for consideration in the middle of next year.
Since the narrowed-down proposals were released there has been an outcry from some South Dunedin residents saying they have been blindsided by the likelihood of property acquisitions. Dunedin city councillor Jo Galer also said residents had discovered in a ‘‘callous way’’ what might happen to their homes from the maps released and from media rather than the council.
Upset residents have a point that, if more specific information is being released, the council should ensure it operates as transparently as possible and the affected communities are told first.
However, this is not the first time the details of possible property acquisitions have been outlined. Depending on which option is pursued, between 1100 and 1700 out of 6500 South Dunedin properties could be affected.
Unfortunately, narrowing the alternatives down to three is bound to spook the horses. There is understandable nervousness around the uncertainties for those most likely to be affected, which is why the councils have to proceed with as much caution as possible and not put a foot wrong in trying to take the community along too.
Proper consultation begins in July and a broad consensus will be needed for the plan to succeed.
Communication with those affected should always remain at the top of the priority list.
As W B Yeats said in He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven: ‘‘Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.’’
