Hundreds of vacant sites where storm-damaged homes have been removed in Auckland will be offered to community groups for playgrounds, planting and even grazing sheep and horses.
Auckland Council is the new owner of about 260 empty sections from the clearing of homes deemed a risk to life in future storms, and expects to have all 1200 homes in the same category cleared by the end of 2027.
The buyout process has left the council with scores of properties of little value, with one rural property outside Puhoi valued at $2.15 million in the 2021 valuations dropping to $50,000 in the latest valuations.
What to do with the empty sections in the communities of Piha, Muriwai and Karekare, on Auckland’s west coast, the isthmus and as far south as Pukekohe is occupying the minds of the council’s recovery office and elected representatives.
Group recovery manager Mace Ward said the number one priority for using the Category 3 land is safety, but also extracting value for Aucklanders.
He said that at this early stage, the council expects about half of the properties will be kept by the council group.
Decisions about the long-term use of the land are several years away but options include flood resilience and stream management, new parks and selling land for redevelopment – conditional on things like converting ground-floor space for storage – and to neighbours for extra backyard space.
“We’ve started this process and have made decisions on a few properties that are more clear-cut,” Ward said.
In the meantime, the recovery office is developing guidelines for the storm-affected land.
The council is open to commercial use of the bare land, especially if it reduces council costs and generates revenue. Community groups are encouraged to apply for low-risk activities such as native planting, weed control, temporary art or play spaces, and grazing.
There will be no charge for community use but groups will be responsible for covering their costs, including insurance and maintenance, according to a report that went to this week’s transport and resilience committee.
Ward said there will be talks with local boards about community use by the end of the year, and any requests the boards put forward could be approved or declined by the governing body early next year.
The Puhoi property had the largest fall in the latest council valuations released last month.
However, because the owners opted into the buyout scheme and the council purchased their property for $1.16m based on the property’s pre-flood market value, the fall in value to $50,000 is a matter for the council.
A council spokeswoman said: “While the property’s market valuation used for the buyout process was higher [than $1.16m], the homeowner contribution and insurance payments were deducted to confirm the final purchase price.”
The buyout of 1200 properties that have met the Category 3 criterion of being “an intolerable risk to life” in a future storm is being funded through the council and the Government’s $2 billion storm recovery package.
The package was set up in October 2023, in what Mayor Wayne Brown and Finance Minister at the time Grant Robertson called a “helping hand” and to provide “certainty” for impacted homeowners.
Ward said the house at Weranui Rd, south of Puhoi, has been removed. Its 2024 valuation of $50,000 was for the land value in line with the methodology for storm-damaged properties being reduced to the value of reserve land, reflecting limited use.
“Improvement values are reduced to zero where improvements are demolished, or a sum of around $50,000 where they remain,” said Ward, saying the methodology had been approved by the Valuer-General.
He said the recovery office did not know what the total fall in value of the 1200 affected properties was at this point.
After bad weather in April this year, homeowners had asked the recovery office to join the categorisation scheme for a possible buyout, but the one-off scheme had closed.
Last week, a panel of experts set up by the Ministry for the Environment recommended an end to buyouts over a 20-year transition period for homeowners whose properties are damaged by extreme weather events, to help shape climate adaptation legislation.
Critics argue such a policy would leave homeowners who lost their houses in natural disasters high and dry.
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has said the Government is taking time to consider the recommendations.
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