Council Responses to Earthquake Prone Buildings – insights and update

1. Council Responses to Earthquake Prone Buildings – insights and update Inner-City Residents and Business Association 24 April Neville Brown, Colin Drew

2. Format • Setting the Scene - the Christchurch Earthquakes and relevance to Wellington • Government review processes and initial assessments • Council responses - work in progress • Your involvement and expectations

3. Learnings from Christchurch • People’s appetite for risk has lessened • A focus on types of buildings that failed • A more pragmatic approach to dealing with “heritage” • Thinking broader than just safety in buildings • Dealing with uncertainty on levels to code and regulatory changes

4. Government review processes • Royal Commission -Council submission last November - They have noted potential solutions from Council paper in Feb. eg. targeted rate for loan repayment - Interim report in June, final in November • Building & Housing (DBH) Regulatory Review - Concurrent review of regulatory settings in dealing with earthquake prone buildings and related matters eg. Building Act, RMA - WCC undertaking cost-benefit modelling of heritage preservation, increased EP threshold and mitigating residential house losses - DBH somewhat reliant on Wellington City information for analysis

5. Up for Consideration • Central rules versus local flexibility in BA • Earthquake prone threshold • Economic resilience & heritage objectives • Triggers for strengthening work • Building standards changed • Building grading system • Regulatory Changes (BA, Unit Titles Act, Rating Act, RMA, Historic Places Act)

6. WCC - Plans from here • Advocating to Govt for change and $ incentives • Communications and providing knowledge • Reducing the cost to building owners • A pragmatic approach to heritage preservation • Investigating new technologies • Support services to building owners • Policy and District Plan reviews $1.45 million in LTP to support such initiatives

7. Priority Activities • Local Government Leadership - represented on review sector reference group - providing evidence-based input and advice - provision of information and wider communications to citizens • Residential Homes - engineering support services - advisory material

8. Priority Activities • Access to finance options - targeted rate on a building as bank loan repayment - $s for public good element of priority heritage buildings - incentives for residential properties (non BA) • Prioritising heritage buildings - 835 buildings/objects covered by heritage provisions - alignment of RMA and Building Act provisions - reviewing our processes

9. Priority Activities • Building assessments - advance evaluations to identify EPBs in Wellington - identify buildings with dangerous features - identify buildings posing risk to lifelines & other property • New technologies – lowering costs - project partnering with engineers & researchers - staged and targeted treatments

10. Key Messages • Need to balance life-safety and city resilience objectives, with level of risk and costs • Government will need to be convinced of the need for legislative changes and funding support for building owners • Wellington city can lead the way in providing national solutions

11. How can you be involved ? • Submit to LTP on earthquake strengthening work – what are the priorities • Inform friends and colleagues of the facts • Share information, views and building owners’ experiences as evidence for change • Form policy positions that Council should consider • Identify projects for collaborative solutions What do you expect of the Council ?

12. DISCUSSION