Council Submission Opposes Many of Government’s Earthquake-Prone Building Proposals

Ruapehu District Council’s (RDC) submission on the Earthquake-Prone Building Consultation has opposed many of the government’s proposals.

In the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes government proposed significant changes to the way earthquake prone buildings are assessed and regulated including shortening the timeframe within which earthquake-prone buildings need to be either strengthened or demolished.

RDC Assistant Policy Planner, Daniel Allen, said that council had real concerns over government proposals which would see all non-residential and multi-unit, multi-storey residential buildings needing to have a seismic capacity assessment done within five years and owners of buildings identified as earthquake-prone then having only ten years to strengthen or demolish these buildings.

“The proposals would be an unsustainable financial burden on districts like Ruapehu,” he said.

“The earthquake-prone building threshold is currently set at one-third of the requirement for new buildings and council believes that the proposed mandatory requirement for all buildings to be strengthened above this level does not strike a reasonable balance between protecting people and the associated costs.”

“Council’s submission stated that the proposed timeframes were far too short for the average Ruapehu building owner.”

“Extending the timeframe for building owners to undertake any strengthening work would allow costs to be spread over longer periods and lessen the chance of owners abandoning their buildings as some have indicated to council they would be forced to do if the current proposals are adopted.”

Mr Allen stated there were a number of proposal that council did support.

“These included the proposed strengthening timeframes to apply to unreinforced masonry buildings and for certain features of these buildings such as chimneys and parapets to be strengthened to a higher level.”

“Outside of the CTV and PGG building collapses unreinforced masonry buildings and such things as chimneys and parapets caused the majority of deaths in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake,” he said.

“Council also supported the proposal for authorities to be able to require faster action on buildings of strategic importance such as schools, hospitals, police stations, civil defence centers’, etc and was in favour of a database listing earthquake-prone buildings and the methods used to strengthen them.”

Mr Allen added that one key area council questioned in our submission was over the level of support that central government will provide to local authorities to implement whatever is adopted.

“The current proposals are unclear about what, if any, support government will provide.”

“Council is concerned that whatever is finally adopted does not place a significant compliance cost put on Ruapehu ratepayers.”

“We will hold workshops in Taumarunui and Ohakune for building owners when a clearer picture emerges of what rules the government intends to adopt,” he said.

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