Napier’s Deputy Mayor Annette Brosnan said in doing so that the land had to be identified for future growth and a technical advisory group had put the project forward as one of the best options for Napier.
“To be frank, if the land was easy, it would have been developed already. Meaning in this process we are only left with the hard-to-develop land, the complex-infrastructure-need land, and the controversial or conflicting priority land,” she said.
The FDS is a statutory requirement for local authorities and establishes how urban development will take place over the coming 30 years.
While the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is part of this process, it has chosen not to support our development and has instead sought an amendment for Riverbend to be removed from the FDS – on the basis that the development is a potential flood risk.
This is extremely frustrating. The regional council’s decision is emotive at best and not based on evidence or facts. The council is choosing to look at the site as it is, not how it will be, and is ignoring professional advice.
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated chair Bayden Barber has said he is adamant Hawke’s Bay is in dire need of housing, full stop – let alone affordable and social housing.
“We all need to pull our weight to achieve this. Those willing to find solutions to the hard problems should be supported at every level. Ngāti Kahungunu supports this kaupapa.”
The reality is most of Napier is flat and sits about 1m above sea level. While this makes development for housing harder, it is by no means impossible.
The land at Riverbend currently ranges from 25cm to 1.65m above sea level at present. Our development will lift this land about 1.5m in places using truckloads of fill (130,000cu m) to provide suitable housing sections protected from flooding.
We have agreed this plan with Napier City Council (NCC) and its expert consultants, and it is modelled using the latest NCC and regional council data on a 100-year flood risk, plus climate change and sea level rise.
Lifting the land to create house sections is a common practice in Napier and has been done in other developments, such as Te Awa, Parklands and the Bupa site on the expressway.
On top of this, we have designed a stormwater management solution that will benefit the wider city network. We’ve worked with NCC engineers and consultants on this and it’ll improve the current flooding issues for the surrounding area, including addressing stormwater that currently drains on to this private land.
The proposed solution of a large pond presents a best practice, low-impact stormwater system that is resilient as well as environmentally sensitive. The pond will be able to hold 115,000cu m of water, which is the capacity of about 50 Olympic swimming pools.
It means we will be able to manage the increased water run-off coming from the developed site, and we are also providing additional flood and stormwater capacity to benefit the wider community.
We’ve worked hard with the NCC, community leaders and iwi to create a development that will benefit the city for many years to come.
We envisage residents will be able to purchase two-bedroom terrace homes for around $600,000. The affordability means our development is both practical and positive for the city.
The community overwhelmingly agrees that Napier desperately needs more affordable and healthy homes.
Riverbend is the only shovel-ready housing project that can deliver these and we’re keen to get started.
