Te Awanga and Haumoana home owners face tougher building consent rules

The council has updated its modelling around potential rising sea levels. Photo / Paul Taylor

New restrictions for people carrying out major renovations in Te Awanga and Haumoana will likely result in more homes "on stilts" or residents giving up on property upgrades altogether, an architect says.

Hastings District Council has updated its modelling around the potential "reach" of rising sea levels and coastal inundation along the coast.

It uses that information to assess building consent applications, and also helps guide decisions around how high buildings need to be built above sea level.

Coastal inundation modelling has previously resulted in new developments such as the Te Awanga Terraces subdivision being built on raised land as part of its resource consent.

In recent months, home owners in the coastal region have been shocked to learn that the modelling also impacts existing homes, when it comes to extensions and major renovations.

The council is planning on posting out information packs to all property owners who will be impacted by the changes early in the new year.

The council did not clarify exactly which zones were being impacted, but home owners in Te Awanga and Haumoana are understood to be the worst affected.

A Te Awanga resident, who did not want to be named, said he spent about $5000 on design plans to build extra rooms as part of an extension to his home earlier this year.

Those plans were knocked back by the council after he applied for a building consent.

"They threw the whole thing back at us and said 'no, you can't do it because of this inundation zone'," he said.

Home owners in Te Awanga village are among those impacted by the changes. Photo / Warren Buckland

"We never knew anything about it and no one else [we had spoken to] knew anything about it."

He said, after speaking to the council, their best option was to build up rather than outwards to meet the new standards.

He said they had since changed their plans and would add a second storey, but the process had been frustrating.

"I can understand if I was wanting to build a brand new house or the big new subdivision being put in down the road ... but when you already have an existing house it's frustrating."

He claimed the council should have done more to communicate the changes.

RedHead Architecture director Yvonne Forrest said the changes would turn people off from doing extensions.

She said some people will build upwards to meet the standards, such as on stilts or by adding a second storey, but they will likely be "few and far between" because of the high costs.

"It's going to turn people off more than anything else because no one wants something on stilts and neighbours are not going to be interested in seeing something like that next to them."

Council's group manager planning and regulatory services, John O'Shaughnessy, said these were not new rules.

"The Building Act and Building Code have long required councils to take natural hazards into account when assessing building consent applications," he said.

"Information has been available to Hastings District Council and the public since 2016 on coastal inundation, and has been taken into account since that time.

"What has changed is the information available on the reach of coastal inundation, and therefore the number of properties affected."

He said the council worked off a case-by-case basis when assessing properties, and there was no specific height above sea level that each property owner had to meet when adding an extension.

"Every situation will be different, depending simplistically on the elevation of their property and the positioning of the proposed new build/alteration."

He said the rules applied to major works rather than minor works on properties.

He said there was no set definition for what constituted a major work, but size and cost of an alteration was one factor in determining if something was a major work.

A forum for building planning professionals was held last week to help professionals understand the changes.

Property owners are asked to check the Hawke's Bay Hazard Portal to see if their property is at risk of coastal inundation. If they are, and they want to carry out renovations, a first step is to fill out a council online form Request for Inundation Height in Coastal Inundation Zone.