Franz Josef on the West Coast, faces an uncertain future, due to flooding risks as the Waiho River changes. Photo: RNZ / The Detail / Sharon Brettkelly
If Franz Josef township may not be able to remain in its present site beyond 20 years, why are authorities still issuing building consents in the area?
That question was among points raised by Scenic Group executive chairwoman Lani Hagaman during an affected party hearing in Greymouth last Friday.
The hearing before an independent commissioner is for an application by the West Coast Regional Council to gain consent for planned flood resilience work on the north bank of the Waiho (Waiau) River under a $24 million government-funded scheme for the area.
Earlier in the hearing, the commissioner was told the planned stopbanks were essentially to give the township some breathing space for about 20 years - ahead of decisions about the town's location in the future or the viability of it remaining where it is.
Hagaman cited a "shutdown in communication" by the West Coast Regional Council in the aftermath of the floods that hit the area in 2016 and 2019. Which had left both their company and the wider Franz Josef community frustrated.
She said "until now" the regional council had not included her company in its communications - and that had only changed when Scenic declined to sign the affected party agreement, late in 2022.
Hagaman said there had been other instances since 2016 where the council had undertaken consented work without notifying Scenic as an interested party.
The main entrance to the Scenic Group Mueller Wing at Franz Josef under water on March 23, 2016. Photo: LDR / Greymouth Star / Brendon McMahon
A March 2016 flood which destroyed its former hotel followed "a moderate rain event", while a 2019 flood which destroyed the State Highway 6 bridge over the Waiho River "was also not a significant event".
Hagaman contended the 2016 flood did not "wash over the bank" into the hotel but washed it out, and that the council approach to the Waiho River had been "a source of frustration" to others in that community.
A $30m claim against the West Coast Regional Council by insurers for the Scenic Hotel Group after flooding in 2016 was settled out of court in May Photo: Supplied/ Local Democracy Reporting/ West Coast Regional Council
Hagaman said that on hearing the town might only have 20 years under the protection scheme, she wondered, "why building consents are still being issued?"
Independent commissioner Peter Callander said Hagaman had raised some good points, although a lot were outside the scope of the hearing.
Hagaman reiterated that Scenic had been an integral part of the Franz Josef community for decades and it shared a level of frustration with the local community that they did not know what was happening.
Scenic lawyer Simon Johnston contended Scenic should have been brought into the process for the two other consents also needed by the council for the floodbank project.
"Really, those three consents should have been dealt with together."
Scenic was "disappointed and angry" at being excluded from those processes, with the other consents already granted.
"It had been dealt with behind our backs, in circumstances where some of those issues were 'live issues' before the High Court at the time," Johnston said.
The Waiho River in flood, washing through the end of the NZ Transport Agency stopbank immediately behind the Scenic Group hotel site at Franz Josef, on March 23, 2016. Photo: Local Democracy Reporting/ Greymouth Star - Brendon McMahon
He said they had raised the matter of the gravel extraction and where it would happen in order for the stopbank work to be carried out.
But they had been told it was not relevant to the application at hand, in which the regional council was applying to itself for consent.
"We feel strongly about having someone independent that Scenic Circle and the community can be confident in granting the consents," Johnston said.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.