Tauranga Council Council's offices on Willow St. Photo / File
Tauranga Council Council's offices on Willow St. Photo / File
Tauranga City Council has admitted some letters sent to thousands of residents did not arrive until after some meetings mentioned in the letters had happened.
The council sent out 53,500 letters to homeowners last month with information about updated one-in-100-year flooding risk maps and three proposed changes to the CityPlan that impact how properties - new and existing - can be developed.
The letters - which many recipients found confusing - invited residents to a series of drop-in meetings, among other options, to get more information.
Plan change 27 - flooding from intense rainfall - in particular, prompted a wave of concern, with email campaigns seeing council staff and elected members inundated with form messages.
Councillor Steve Morris raised the volume of emails in a Projects, Services and Operations Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Councillor John Robson asked whether it was true letters arrived too late for meetings they advertised and, if so, "how did this happen?"
Councillor John Robson. Photo / File
Council corporate and strategy planning manager Jeremy Boase said there were 10 drop-in meetings, and some of the letters were received after the first "one or two" meetings had passed.
In future, the council would allow more lead-in time for mail delivery, he said.
He said the council was making sure there were plenty of other opportunities for residents to discuss the changes.
One-on-one sessions with staff were booked up quickly so staff were opening up more booking times as well as taking phone queries.
The deadline for submissions to the plan change had also been extended to February 1 from December 18 to give people more time to make submissions.
Robson said he was concerned that was not long enough given New Zealand "shuts down for pretty much most of January" and people may want to get professional advice.
Boase said staff believed there was enough time, especially given most of the concern so far related to the flooding maps and there was no deadline for questions on those, they could be reviewed any time.
Planner Janine Speedy said while the subject was new for a lot of people and very technical, they were not expected to get professional advice to prepare their submissions, all of which would be considered in a hearing process.
She said the council had contracted a stormwater engineer to review every property where residents flagged potential errors in the flood mapping and respond to questions, doing a site visit if necessary.
The council had also contracted and trained a person to take calls on the plan change and direct callers to the appropriate staff, with three staff working fulltime responding this week.
Speedy said more than 1000 people attended the 10 open days held across the city over the past two weeks. Staff had also done more than 240 one-on-one meetings and responded to 100-plus walk-in queries.
She said people generally wanted to talk about their particular property and to be talked through the letter. She believed they left more informed.
Council chief executive Marty Grenfell said the council would also be contacting everyone who had sent one of the form letters and offering to speak with them individually.
Council chief executive Marty Grenfell. Photo / File
Councillor Larry Baldock said he had met people coming out of some of the drop-in sessions satisfied with the information they received and was concerned about people thinking they needed to get professional advice.
Councillor Heidi Hughes said she had a lot of calls from people "confused" by the initial letter.
Speedy said her team had been working with the council's communications team for months, and also had a staff member not involved in the long-running project review the information.
"We've tried to provide enough information in the letter, but it is really key for people to then go to the website or come into a library or the front counter to read the information and look at the fact sheets, etc.
"There was a huge number of people who have come into the open days or rung up who were very upset, then once we have read the letter through with them, they've said 'oh, okay, I get it, I understand now.
"There was a lot of work done to make it as clear as possible. We acknowledge it is a very technical plan change."
Flooding on Stevenson Drive in Pāpāmoa East in 2018. Photo / File
She said a section in Plan Change 27 on "impervious surfaces" that applied to the whole city has been especially alarming.
"People have read 'flooding' and got quite concerned but not have read the next sentence [about impervious surfaces]."
She reiterated people need to go to the website or hard copies to understand what it means.
Hughes said there was a "conspiracy theory", that was not correct, that the council had timed the submission period to catch people off-guard coming into Christmas.
Speedy said this timing had long been in the plan for the changes, but the council was taking that feedback on board.
While Plan Change 27 already has legal effect under Resource Management Act rules, changes can still be made through the formal hearing process.
