Port Hills white zoners waited for months to be red or green zoned. Some were, some weren't. There were more delays for Port Hills white zoners still awaiting slow CERA re-zonings.
CERA minister Brownlee went into "degree of rigour" required routine, but we'd heard those delay excuses since riverside properties were red zoned over a year before. CERA was scaring Port Hills homeowners about rockfall, hill-slide & cliff-fall risks.
During nearly 2 years of quakes, some red zoned, Port Hills properties never had rockfalls on them, yet Brownlee & CERA scaremongers red zoned perfectly good, Port Hills properties, then made risible, NZ National govt offers based on 2007 Rateable Value to land-grab perfectly good properties.
Examples: An engineer built his own rock-catcher fence to protect his 3 year old Lyttelton home, which was red zoned. Like he was being punished by CERA scaremongers for speaking out in The Press months before, together with neighbour, columnist Bennett, who received one tiny rock from the Port Hills over two quake years. A Sumner civil engineer / builder refused to leave his red zoned home as he'd concrete-protected it against rockfall.
The Lyttelton engineer & Joe Bennett objected to their safe houses being Council red stickered, unlivable, having to be abandoned. The Lyttelton engineer said on TV One News that CERA had no transparency in its zoning decisions. The Sumner engineer said he'd have to be taken out of his home in handcuffs. (The Press 23.08.12).
CERA boss Sutton rogered Port Hills white zoners for months with his scaremongering, Milan University modelling of bouncing rocks. Funny CERA couldn't sort out its computer cock-ups, regarding timeously informing Port Hills white zoners by emails that their properties were red zoned.
Why emails?
Latest CERA cock-up, some Port Hills property owners only found out about their red zoning through the media. How effective were slow, geotech engineers & their ground-truthing & computer modelling?
TV One News: Latest from scaremonger Sutton: CERA had inquired about rock-catcher fencing. But nowhere in the world were rock-catcher fences used for seismic rockfalls. Sutton: "We haven't found remediation which fits our criteria."
In my Europe travels I'd driven / bussed / trained under many rock-catcher / avalanche protection, concrete structures. I'd passed many rock-catcher embankments. Not high tech, but effective. Concreting & steel reinforcing, like on road cuttings, would stop rockfalls. Never mind mining, steel, roof bolt pinning of rocks. What about CERA's / Council's shipping container barriers below Clifton & Sumner cliffs?
1995. One of my first labouring jobs was at a forestry nursery in Avoca Valley. Most Avoca Valley properties had zoning completion. Did Avoca Valley residents' recent protest on Ports Hills Rd cause CERA to speed up its zoning there?
The Press 21.08.12. CERA efficiency: An Avoca Valley property was zoned green with a heap of fallen rocks, whereas neighbouring properties were zoned red, no fallen rocks. So much for CERA's Port Hill's, rezoning delays & transparency, regarding Sutton's vaunted computer modelling. CERA's land reports could only be obtained in October, when zoning of all properties was completed.
Sat 18.08.12. I wanted to see warm, north-facing, Horotane Valley, Heathcote Valley, Morgans Valley, so I drove to Horotane Valley Rd, snapping damaged housing & daffodils in an early blooming, fruit orchard.
18.08.12. Horotane Valley view, quake collapsed Castle Rock, left & The Tors
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Horotane Valley
18.08.12. Greenhouse, Horotane Valley. Quake collapsed Castle Rock backdrop
18.08.12. Daffodils, Horotane Valley
18.08.12. Fruiterers store, Horotane Valley
18.08.12. Horotane Valley view, quake collapsed Castle Rock
Heathcote Valley, epicentre of the 22.02.11 Killer Quake: Drove to Heathcote Valley, doing a circuit of roads, including Port Hills Rd, stopping for quake pics. Heathcote valley was dominated by rocky bluffs on Mt Pleasant, left; Mt Cavendish & 04.09.10 Darfield Quake collapsed, Castle Rock middle, Horotane Valley wall, right. Above Flinders Rd the motorway went to Lyttelton Road Tunnel. Between Port Hills Rd & Bridle Path Rd, the railway went up Heathcote Valley to Lyttelton Railway Tunnel.
Flinders Rd: Some ghost houses: Broken walls, some boarded. Broken roofs, some blue tarped. Other houses OK, inhabited. Mud slides by the road cutting, after recent heavy rains. Ghost house at the top, near the stream.
18.08.12. Heathcote Valley, Martindales Rd view, quake damaged roof, Flinders Rd. Quake collapsed, Castle Rock backdrop
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Flinders Rd, Heathcote Valley. Mt Pleasant backdrop
18.08.12. Flinders Rd view, post quake, Maltworks silos, demolition site, Heathcote Valley
18.08.12. Flinders Rd, Heathcote Valley view, quake collapsed, Castle Rock
18.08.12. Flinders Rd, Heathcote Valley view, Mt Cavendish
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Flinders Rd / Bridle Path Rd, Heathcote Valley
Bridle Path Rd: Ghost house at the top, near the Gondola Station. House walls boarded.
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Bridle Path Rd, Heathcote Valley
Port Hills Rd: Ghost houses. Some houses OK, inhabited. Soccer crowd at Heathcote Domain club field. Kids played in the domain, playing area by the Bowls Club. A man chucked a ball across the soccer field for his huntaway to fetch.
18.08.12. Port Hills Rd view, quake collapsed, Castle Rock
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Port Hills Rd, Heathcote Valley
18.08.12. Heathcote Valley, Port Hills Rd, quake damaged housing. Quake collapsed, Castle Rock above, The Tors behind
18.08.12. Heathcote Domain playground, Port Hills Rd. Lyttelton Tunnel motorway cutting above green embankment
18.08.12. Heathcote Domain, sports field, clubhouse. Mt Cavendish, Morgans Valley backdrop
Old Maltworks: over past months, we saw demolition of surviving, concrete silos. A digger picked over concrete rubble, near the railway going to Lyttelton Tunnel. New Maltworks Villas would be built on old Maltworks site.
18.08.12. Post quake, Maltworks Villas development, Maltworks silos demolition site, Port Hills Rd, Heathcote Valley. Lyttelton Tunnel railway behind demolition site
18.08.12. Post quake, Maltworks Villas development, Maltworks silos, demolition site, Port Hills Rd, Heathcote Valley. Mt Cavendish right
Due to quakes in Heathcote Valley, so close to the Port Hills Fault, which had raised the Port Hills one metre in the 22.02.11 Killer Quake, Maltworks Villas development was nuts! A board on bare development ground & another board by the railway extolled Maltworks Villas safety:
"Soon to be established on this site will be a Lifestyle Village designed thoughtfully to enhance the quality of living for those looking for a safe environment and secure investment."
18.08.12. Orange, digger, yellow crane. Post quake, Maltworks silos demolition site, Port Hills Rd, Heathcote Valley
18.08.12. Port Hills Rd view, quake collapsed, Castle Rock. The Tors behind
18.08.12. Martindales Rd, traffic circle view, Port Hills Rd, Heathcote Valley. Mt Cavendish beyond
Martindales Rd: Dairy by the traffic circle, gone, demolished. Several ghost houses. Damaged roofs. Broken walls, some boarded, some blue tarped. Heathcote Valley Community Library ghost, steel mesh fence cordoned: broken gables, broken, boarded, wood-propped walls. Library would be demolished, 2013.
18.08.12. Martindales Rd view, quake damaged house, Flinders Rd, Heathcote Valley
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Martindales Rd, Heathcote Valley
Sham Recovery: 18 months post 22.02.11 Killer Quake, as there were so many Heathcote Valley ghosts, it was an indictment of CERA, EQC, insurers. Latter two, delayers, as CERA didn't enable speedy claims settlements by EQC, insurers. As CERA didn't use it's powers to sort out EQC's & insurers' delays, what was the point of CERA, as a RECOVERY agency?
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Martindales Rd. Quake collapsed, Castle Rock backdrop
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Martindales Rd. Mt Cavendish backdrop
18.08.12. Quake damaged house, Martindales Rd. Mt Pleasant behind
18.08.12. Quake trashed, steel mesh fence cordoned, Heathcote Valley Community Library, Martindales Rd. The library would be demolished, 2013
Martindales Rd / Bridle Path Rd: On the WW1 / WW2 black granite obelisk, someone had stuck details-of-the-dead captions next to dead soldiers' names. Beyond, below blue sky, Mt Pleasant & Mt Cavendish loomed. Given CERA's land-grabbing & freedoms those soldiers had fought for, they'd be spinning in their graves. Like other WW colonials, Kiwi soldiers fought for land rights, yet the present National govt land-grabbed NZ citizens' land.
18.08.12. WW1 / WW2 monument, Martindales Rd / Bridle Path Rd, Heathcote Valley. Mt Pleasant left, Mt Cavendish right
Morgans Valley: New Houses at the valley bottom looked OK. There were ghost houses at the top development. Above the housing development & concrete retaining walls, a line of pine trees grew. Mt Pleasant & Mt Cavendish bluffs loomed above. A Council vetted, rockfall fence proved useless against rockfall hazard.
18.08.12. Morgans Valley view, Mt Pleasant bluffs, Port Hills
18.08.12. Morgans Valley view, Mt Cavendish, Port Hills
18.08.12. Morgans Valley skateboarders below Mt Cavendish, Port Hills
Youngsters skateboarded down steep Morgans Valley. I gave a lift to 2 skateboarder blokes to the top traffic circle. A spaniel greeted me there, another dog barked from the only inhabited house garden. Top end of the road, another ghost house.
18.08.12. Morgans Valley, quake damaged house below Mt Pleasant bluffs
18.08.12. Morgans Valley, quake neglected, letter boxes, Port Hills
18.08.12. Quake abandoned house, Morgans Valley
Top raffic circle: 2 stands of 10 letter boxes each, lot numbers up to 86 in the ghost development. Junk mail poked from letter boxes. Atop letter boxes, new telephone directories in yellow plastic packets. Would anyone collect the junk mail & telephone directories?
18.08.12. Quake damaged roadside, Morgans Valley, Christchurch
18.08.12. Morgans Valley view, Heathcote Valley, Heathcote River, Christchurch
18.08.12. Morgans Valley letter boxes, concrete retaining wall, rock-catcher trees
After Council development cock ups, quakes & CERA zonings, all that the steep road up Morgans Valley was good for was skateboarding.
18.08.12. Concrete retaining wall, quake abandoned house, Morgans Valley
18.08.12. Morgans Valley view, soggy Heathcote Valley, Heathcote River, Christchurch
*Trekked Horotane Valley Rd, Flinders Rd, Bridle Path Rd, Port Hills Rd, Martindales Rd, Morgans Valley. 79 images.
Once CERA & NZ National govt completed red zonings, who owned Christchurch's red zone land? Like bits of red zoned riverside suburbs: Avonside, Dallington, Burwood, Avondale, Bexley, Southshore, Brooklands. Like red zoned Port Hills lands. Like red zoned CBD E Frame, CBD S Frame: commercial CBD land needed for NZ National govt's / CERA's Blueprint CBD stadium & Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae.
With its CERA 2 offers for residential red zoners, NZ National govt used home owners' insurances from slow insurers to compensate homeowners, based on 2007 Rates Valuations. Worse still, ratepayers had to cough up a payout proportion for each Port Hills red zone property, as Council was responsible for rockfall, hill-slide & cliff-fall hazards protection.
As NZ National govt / CERA had also Blueprinted CBD, E & S Frame land, with market value payouts, it was a National govt land-grab of vast Christchurch CBD & residential areas.
Both NZ National govt & SA apartheid Nationalist govt used police state powers, with dictatorial decrees, to demolish perfectly good bldgs & separate citizens from their properties for lengthy periods, by means of evictions, threat signs, NO GO cordons, while citizens were detained, arrested, intimidated, harassed by cops & soldiers. In Christchurch there was CBD occupation by cops & NZDF soldiers & Ryan Security at checkpoints. In inhabited suburbs & demolished suburbs there were cop patrols, even some cop / NZDF military exercises, the excuse, public safety. During quake times I was tired of shrieking cop sirens.
Imagine your residential land or CBD commercial land red zoned & confiscated by NZ National govt without adequate reasons. That happened in Christchurch. NZ National govt's 2 offers for residential land, at 2007 RV, yes, but NZ National govt's land reports giving reasons, no.
Example of CERA boss Sutton's indifference regarding NZ National govt offers on CBD Frame land: "This is the offer, have a nice day." (The Press 30.08.12). As Sutton's CERA confiscated CBD land & demolished red zone, NZDF cordoned, CBD, it was time Brownlee & Sutton ordered a 100 day Blueprint for Christchurch's neglected E suburbs, still wallowing in liquefactioned, red zone & green-blue zone, TC3 squalor. Separation of CERA's Blueprint for CBD rebuild & CERA's neglect of trashed, E suburbs was supreme apartheid!
CERA land reports would only be released after all Port Hills land was zoned, perhaps during October. CERA took its time completing land zonings in the Port Hills, apologies from Brownlee. That was only after 1 000s of residential red zoners already accepted NZ National govt's offer, accepted by a NZ National govt deadline.
Apartheid Christchurch: Processed by CERA bureaucrats, NZ National govt took land from citizens by forming colour zones & forcing people to move by discriminatory decree based on earthquakes. Processed by Nat bureaucrats, SA apartheid, Nationalist govt took land from citizens by forming separate townships & homelands & forcing people to move by discriminatory decree based on skin colour.
There was apartheid planning (condoned by NZ National govt / CERA) by rebuild companies, wanting to recruit overseas migrant, cheap labour, like Filipinos & Irish & stuff workers into single sex, men's hostels (like apartheid SA's workmen hostels) by buying Christchurch blocks of flats for migrant workers, or making migrant workers' camps, within the 4 Avenues of the old CBD, to rebuild post quake CBD. (Rebuild accommodation was discussed, but fizzled, rebuild workers just flooded Christchurch rental market, causing inflation & rental hardship for Christchurch citizens).
Continuing apartheid: Separate development of Christchurch CBD (by CERA's CCDU), millions of dollars pumped in Christchurch CBD. Christchurch E suburbs, neglected, impoverished development of Christchurch E suburbs. Like SA apartheid, impoverished locations / townships, Bantustans / homelands.
Apartheid SA, riddled with Development Corporations, employing affirmative action, white bureaucrats, leeching taxpayers, little development. Examples: Transkei Development Corporation (TDC), Ciskei Development Corporation (CDC), QwaQwa Development Corporation QDC... Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU), similar affirmative action bureaucracy by CERA, little CBD development.
2011-2012. Christchurch's red zoning, forced-removals: Red zoners were forced from their houses by NZ National govt decree, having to find accommodation elsewhere. Akin to Johannesburg, Sophiatown's forced removals of blacks to Soweto, 1955; forced removals of Durban North Indians to Chatsworth, 1960s; Cape Town, District Six forced removals of Coloureds to Cape Flats, 1960s.
There was little difference between SA apartheid, National govt's forced-removals of SA citizens & NZ National govt's forced-removals of Christchurch citizens from their red zoned, residential & CBD commercial properties, 2 govt offers for residential properties, or deal with slow insurers, then displaced to Halswell, Rolleston, Rangiora, Kaiapoi developments, so that Councils, CERA & National govt tendercrats could benefit from insurance payouts.
As for notorious passes SA apartheid citizens had to carry, Christchurch Civil Defence, then CERA controlled a pass system for NZDF military checkpoint, access to Christchurch red zone CBD. Not only contractors, but red zone property owners needed CERA passes to access their own properties in CERA occupied CBD. I saw CERA PASSES ONLY threat signs at CERA / NZDF checkpoints by CBD steel mesh fence cordons.
Both SA & NZ govts decreed & processed huge structural violence & injustices, like NZ's slow EQC & insurers. SA's apartheid ended due to internal resistance; international sanctions & divestments; business boycotts by locals. What resistance was there to NZ National govt's / CERA's residential red zoning & red zone, CBD Blueprint?
As Christchurch citizens suffered the quakes, they deserved their land given back, ravaged or not, for citizens' use. Not Crown owned for govt profit.
Fri 24.08.12. To sort out CERA's zoning cock-ups, Sutton announced that of the 1 300 flat land residential properties under zone review, only "three properties change from red to green zone and 101 properties will change from green to red." The rest no change. After review, CERA only rezoned 104 properties out of 1 300 flat land properties under review. The rezonings included properties where owners hadn't even asked for a review, but their rezonings were decreed by CERA regarding infrastructure availability & isolation.
"The remaining properties that didn't change are mostly in Technical category (TC3) areas..." That still left TC3 flat land properties in a muddle dictated by CERA, 28 000 TC3 property values degraded by CERA, as EQC dithered about drilling land, so TC3 foundations could be fixed, according to Dept of Building & Health criteria & EQC was dithering about apportionment of costs for different quakes, which let slow insurers off the payment hook, as they just blamed EQC for delays.
Properties were zoned red if they were too expensive to fix on land too expensive to remediate. Properties were zoned green if they were less expensive to fix on land not too expensive to remediate, like CERA concocted, green-blue, TC3 land. Bullshit, as rebuild costs were based on post quakes, mythical land values. Who knew the value of Canterbury or Christchurch land after 11 000 quakes over the last 2 years?
Sat afternoon 25.08.12. Leah & I bought pies at French Bakery, Chapmans Rd, chomping them at Heathcote Domain. We watched kids gliding down the Flying Fox & a blue paraglider soaring & swooping from Mt Cavendish over Heathcote Valley. The paraglider stooped & landed safely on Heathcote Domain sports field. The kids & paraglider took risks, giving the lie to CERA's computer modelling, gobbledegook about future quake hazards in Heathcote Valley.
Thurs 13.09.12. CERA announced that 37 Port Hills properties were red zoned in Horotane Valley & Bridle Path Rd, Heathcote Valley, 443 red zone Port Hills properties so far. Lucas Ln, Hillsborough properties were still white zoned, in limbo, awaiting re-zoning.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Family struggles for answers after land zoning (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Left with a house that's unsellable (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Resident defiant despite red sticker (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Review of land zoning completed 24 August 2012 (CERA).
See Housing squeeze hits rebuild (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Unwilling landowners to get ultimatum (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Big camps planned for rebuild workers (The Press / Stuff Co).
See The red zone in the hills (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Mayor challenges Port Hills zoning process (The Press / Stuff Co).
Replied to an email: A High St jeweller needed permission to use one of my Sept 4 quake pics in her soon to be published book, proceeds to go to people injured in the 22.02.11 quake.
ReplyDeleteJune 2021 comment on my Heathcote Valley post (Woza Mark blog) received from Julia whose house was red zoned in the Heathcote Valley, Bridle Path Rd:
ReplyDeleteThank you immensely for the photos of the walk [Heathcote Valley Park] and the surrounding hills. The first house you passed on your right coming up the track was my home. I had to leave as my house did not survive the earthquake [22.02.11] and I never saw a single bit of footage of the Heathcote Valley in the weeks that followed. I never understood why the suburb directly over the epicentre never got any coverage.
I was home on the day. Rocks the size of cars came flying down. They bounced off the trees like pin balls and sent them through my neighbour's house. My 5 year old daughter was at Heathcote Primary School. I could hear the screams of 250+ kids from my house. The whole school was assembled (if you can call it that) in the playground. The next aftershock knocked us off our feet!
I used to love walking (coronary inducing) up to the quarry behind the house as the view was amazing... so thank you so very much for capturing what I didn't do all the years I lived there... probably thinking I had all the time in the world.