Mataura River

You've got the main town, you've got the parts that are close to the Matoura River that are perhaps going to be most impacted by these changes as they're proposed.

But we also heard there about other mitigations that might happen with the Mataura, what the regional council's responsibilities could have or maybe what they could or should be considering.

Can you speak generally to your flood protection challenge?

yeah for sure and i think that's probably where a little bit of the confusion lies um is that even if that's uh flood level has changed even if it's changed to one in 100 uh ultimately the prediction is that the flood the the flood banks breach um closer to one in 75 years and that's the real issue is that if a flood bank is to breach then you have all of that water coming into the town And from a territorial authority perspective, it's irresponsible of us to allow people to build where there is going to be a large amount of water.

They're kind of saying it's making them impossible to build or redevelop projects, and it does sort of seem to be the case.

So the rules are aimed to address the effects of a projected one in a two hund- one in two hundred year flood of the Mataura River based on modeling provided by Environment Southland.

So under the new district plan rules, new buildings and significant structure extensions must raise the finished floor levels to protect properties against major floods.

So in areas that have been identified as hazard areas, um, foundations must be elevated by typically one point five meters above standard ground levels, or in the central business di-district, this is looking like it could be one point eight meters.