Dunedin City Council has started gathering feedback from the community on the future of the city's coastline from St Clair to St Kilda.
Photo: Supplied
The council is hosting community workshops to gather ideas and feedback on the work of the St Clair to St Kilda Coastal Plan to date.
Covering more than three kilometres from the seaside suburbs of St Clair to St Kilda, the area is a destination for visitors and locals but climate change hangs over the whole coast.
Concerns have only ramped up since the wider South Dunedin basin was inundated by heavy rain in 2015.
While the council started the workshops in central Dunedin on 21 January, the first workshop among the nearby community was held at the weekend at Tainui School.
Some, like long-time resident Graeme Boyes, were rallying behind calls to reinstate wooden groynes - barriers built perpendicular to the shore - at St Clair Beach.
"They worked for 100 years," he said.
"They still had bad erosion from them and they created a lot of erosion, but they saved a lot of damage further on in St Clair. So going back 100-odd years, they proved the right thing."
Another long-time resident, who did not wish to be identified, agreed.
"All I can remember [from the time of the groynes] is all the sand dunes from St Clair all the way to Kettle Park and they're not there now."
He accused current councillors of sitting on their hands and kicking the task onto the next council.
Current council planning about what to do at Ocean Beach (the area covering St Clair, Middle and St Kilda beaches) had been ongoing for a decade, but the battle between local authorities and nature went back more than a century.
It was only a small crowd at yesterday's workshop but there was a lot of passion and some firmly held beliefs.
Those who wanted the groynes reinstated acknowledged they held a nostalgic value with photos of the weathered posts in the sand at St Clair among Dunedin's most iconic images.
But experts say it might not be so simple and reinstating groynes at St Clair was unlikely to have much effect, especially as an isolated measure, and against climate change.
Julian Doorey, who lived nearby, said he wanted science to inform the ultimate outcome from the council's consultation.
Residents were concerned about losing properties and amenity value in the area, he said.
"I really prefer adaptation for the sea level rise that will happen and, yes, we can reduce our carbon for future benefits but at this stage there's some really strong need for adaptation which involves setting up drainage systems and protection systems and it's really hard engineering stuff which has got to be done," he said.
The council had a mammoth task on its hands.
It had to balance the needs and desires of beach users - from dog walkers to surfers - and residents and local businesses who had property at stake.
That had to be considered in a timeframe of a hundred years and a budget of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars.
All the while climate change's dual threats of rising seas and increased storm frequency and severity threatened a sea wall at one end of the coast, a sensitive dune system at the other and a buried landfill in between.
The council's coastal specialist, Tom Simons-Smith, said he hoped people came to the workshops with open minds.
"St Clair has always historically been the area that's got the most community focus, but arguably we've got a greater risk in terms of the landfill at Middle Beach. So the way we manage different parts [of the area] can have a bearing on the risk at the other ones.
"We just want to be honest with people that they need to give feedback on all of this if they want to add weight to their voice."
The council hoped to present the St Clair to St Kilda Coastal Plan to the community by mid year, Simons-Smith said.