Fluffy Fendalton ladies amused me on my morning treks from Hagley Park North back to Burnside. Some walked their dogs, some jogged, some pushed prams. Ladies' hair matched their dogs' fur: teased hair, bottle-blond hair... A red-haired lady jogged with her red-haired spaniel. An old lady, full poop-bag in one hand, fluffy terrier leashed to the other. A lady cycled beside the railway track, two fluffy dogs in her bike basket. Ladies walked with aluminium ski-poles. Ladies scootered their kids to school then scootered home along lumpy footpaths. Jewelled ladies in parked cars chatted by houses needing repairs. Fendalton damages were still there near streams & hidden behind vegetation & high walls.
01.11.13. Quake trashed house awaiting demolition, Wairarapa Tce
Wairarapa Tce: I trekked past demolition-sites & construction-sites & repair-sites. Over the last week, I'd watched a ruined house entirely demolished: Monday, house quarter-demolished; Tuesday, half-demolished; Thursday, house gone, a pile of rubble, an orange-digger on top; Friday, empty demolition-site, the digger smoothing soil on site. The footpath, covered by two steel-slabs allowed excavator machines to cross over.
01.11.13. Quake trashed house awaiting demolition, Wairarapa Tce
Garden Rd: Thursday 5 - Tuesday 10 December. HAZARD AREA. DEMOLITION SITE. Another house-demolition: Thursday, workmen ripped out vegetation in the garden. By Monday the house was demolished, a heap of rubble with a navy-blue sofa on top. Tuesday, just a sandy demolition-site & footpath SMF-cordoned. It took less than a week to completely demolish a house on a quarter-acre property. Over the last three years that happened 1000s of times.
CAUTION CONSTRUCTION SITE. AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY... SPECIFIC HAZARD...
I trekked past house-foundation repairs & and house-rebuild sites.
10.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Post quake, house demolition site, Garden Rd
10.12.13. Post quake foundation repair, Garden Rd
10.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Post quake, house rebuild, Garden Rd
Pre-quakes, I saw lively riverside roads along Heathcote River & Avon River. Pre-quakes Jake lived on Avonside Dr, Avon Loop. Post- quakes Jake & Luke now flatted together in a two-storey house on Ashrove Tce by Heathcote River.
Pre & post-quakes, I'd often trekked Avon River streets: Avonside Dr, River Rd, Dallington Tce, Locksley Ave, New Brighton Rd, Bexley Rd, Waitaki St. The last two streets were the first streets Leah & I saw flooded in the 4 September 2010 Quake. They were ruined by later quakes.
Pre-quakes roads by Avon River were housed & lively. Post-quakes they became red-zoned, then dusty demolition-sites. Those roads haunted me, luring me back over the last three years.
Big news this week: a discrepancy between CERA's Port Hills land zonings & a Council geotech report (Institute of Geological & Nuclear Science) which Council sat on since August, showing discrepancies between CERA's zonings & the Council report on dangers of slippery-slopes in the Port Hills. Slippery-slope dangers in the Council report were Classed 1 to 3: Class 1, most dangerous slope; Class 3, least dangerous slope.
Council's geotech report used the term "mass movement," meaning rockfalls, cliff-collapses, slippery-slopes & land-slips. In reality Port Hills were riddled with cracks & slopes ready to subside in a quake. Aerial photos showed Council had consented housing developments atop Port Hills, on Port Hills slopes & below Port Hills slopes.
CERA boss Sutton wittered for months while CERA delayed zonings in the Port Hills, as CERA awaited a Port Hills rolling-rocks study by Milan University, while Council did a similar geotech study. There was a disconnect between former mayor Parker's Council & CERA. While Parker's minions red-stickered Port Hills houses, CERA's lackeys green-zoned the same housing! Why didn't CERA minister Brownlee sort out communications between Council & CERA? A duplication between CERA & Council: CERA's Insurer Advisory Service vs Council's Advocacy Service. CERA expected Council to use ratepayers' money to part-pay for CERA's Advisory Service, an EQC / insurer protection racket.
Roads I'd trekked, mentioned in the Council report: Clifton Tce, Clifton; Cliff St, Moncks Bay; Defender Ln, Glendevere Tce, Redcliffs; Bridle Path Rd, Heathcote Valley; Alderstone Ave, Lucas Ln, Aynsley Tce, Hillsborough; Bowenvale Ave, Bowenvale Valley. There were many more slippery-slope roads investigated by the Council report.
Slippery-slopes I blogged post-quakes: Scarborough, Sumner, Clifton, Redcliffs: ruins atop cliffs, ruins below cliffs or bluffs, ruins on slippery-slopes. Moncks Bay: ruins atop cliffs, ruins below cliffs, ruins on loess slopes, ruins on rocky slopes. Mt Pleasant, Heathcote Valley, Bowenvale Valley: ruins on slippery-slopes. Hillsborough: ghosts on loess slopes, ghosts below loess cliffs, ghosts below rocky bluffs. Lyttelton: ruins on rocky slippery-slopes. Never mind streams flowing in several of the above areas, aggravating unstable ground.
Port Hills roads haunted me too. I'd returned to see broken-roads from pre-quakes, lively residential areas to post-quakes demolition-sites, or house repairs, or house rebuilds.
Meanwhile:
1. Recent High Court ruling, CERA's residential red-zoning was unlawful: CERA was appealing the ruling, causing delays in final residential zoning decisions. Some Port Hills property owners waited over two years for a CERA zoning. Homeowners in limbo. Minister Brownlee apologised.
2. This week's Council geotech report, some of which didn't match CERA's green-zonings & red-zonings. Some of CERA's green-zoned Port Hills residential properties were Class 1 in Council's report: lethal. A shambles!
3. Insurers used CERA vs Council conflicts regarding residential zonings / classes as excuses to delay settlements, or house repairs, or house rebuilds. Aggravating CERA versus Council conflicts, the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment only recently sorted out new, post- quake, strengthened foundation-specifications. Once again, owners of broken-homes were trapped between NZ National government departments & Council. Why did government take so long producing foundation-specifications? Post-quake houses had already been rebuilt with crap foundations!
4. Stonewalling & time wasting & secretiveness & lack of transparency from Council & CERA & EQC.
Property owners' pushback: public protests & court-actions & email leaks released by bloggers & media reports & complaints to the ombudsman & state services commissioner reports & Official Information Act (OIA) requests to EQC, before getting any sense from authorities responsible for quake RECOVERY.
Monday 18.11.13, 11.36pm, M4.6 quake, 8km depth, 10km southwest of Christchurch (GeoNet) in the "Gap" between Halswell & Prebbleton. Leah & I didn't feel it, as we were in our car driving on Barrington St near Port Hills.
Thursday 21.11.13 The Press front page headline: HOUSING CHANGES TO RAISE DENSITY
CERA vs Council farce continued: More than a year post 22 February 2011 Quake, in June last year when displaced people were sleeping in garages, cars, caravans, on the beach, CERA minister Brownlee said there was no housing crisis & the market would sort things out. The 22 February 2011 quake had flooded Jake out of his Waltham Rd flat. He'd over-wintered with a girlfriend in a liquefactioned-garage off Cranford St! That was Brownlee's idea of no housing crisis!
NZ National government had red-zoned 7 000+ houses, expecting them to be abandoned by owners compelled to find housing elsewhere. Not a squeak from former town clerk Marryatt's & former mayor Parker's Council about that massive taking by NZ National government! So far, CERA had demolished 3 500 red zone houses, 4 500+ still to go. (29.11.13 The Press / Stuff Co).
Without actually replacing the 7 000+ red-zoned houses lost by quakes & government decree, minister Brownlee suggested changing big, old houses into apartments; degrade granny-flats & Councils' pensioners' cottages into apartments for young people; degrade quarter-acre properties into high-density townhouses. New mayor Dalziel actually agreed to those potential high-density slums!
March 2015. Mayor Dalziel would sing Mandarin love songs in China, to woo Chinese investors. Shed joined other Chinese wooers: PM Key, former PM Shipley. In December 2019, mayor Dalziel would be scorned for not naming her election campaign donors. Later she revealed names of several Chinese donors.
Thus Dalziel & minister Brownlee wanted to stuff 30 to 65 dwellings per hectare, without improvements in infrastructure, public transport, nor roads. (The Press 29.11.13). Thus Dalziel's Council would have a bigger rates base. Where would Dalziel & minister Brownlee put garaging & parking per hectare? Considering MoE's 2012 botch-up, closing & merging Christchurch schools, did Brownlee & Dalziel consult Parata's MoE about new schools for their incipient slums? 2023. There would be new housing development in Halswell. But no new high school would be built in Halswell! (When driving around Christchurch in 2026, I would see many of those new high-density apartments scattered around town. They all looked the same, two-storey apartments. Post-quake developers had made a killing!)
Wednesday 27.11.13. In the mornings, after Leah dropped me off at Hagley Park North, I exercised on the outdoor gym machines by the golf club. I then trekked back to Burnside. Over the last week I'd watched Christmas-In-The-Park's Xmas tree & stage & equipment being set up for the annual festival.
27.11.13. Christmas In The Park, Xmas tree & stage, Hagley Park N
On my daily treks from Hagley Park North through Fendalton to Burnside I saw FOR SALE signs on residential properties: land for sale, houses for sale, with or without EQC repairs, as is where is... There were also ghosts awaiting EQC & insurers for repairs, thus ensuring the rental market was still in crisis, as former inhabitants of abandoned housing had to live somewhere. All those Fendalton FOR SALE signs meant home owners were cashing-in.
Clifford Ave: Opposite Mona Vale, during recent rainy days, I watched diggers digging a new foundation-hole on a Fendalton house demolition-site between the railway & Wairarapa Stream. The soil-horizon had about half a metre of silt above yellow clay, the same soil-horizon as our Burnside rental. The new house would be built on quakemire, rumbled by the railway & doomed by the next big quake, despite deeper foundations: compacted shingle, thicker concrete foundation-slab!
27.11.13. Rebuild foundation hole, Fendalton Rd / Clifford Ave
A neighbouring two-storey ghost: Overgrown demolition-site, stone gate-posts roadside, abandoned swimming pool on Wairarapa Stream bank.
27.11.13. Overgrown garden. Quake abandoned house by Wairarapa Stream, Clifford Ave
27.11.13. Overgrown garden. Quake abandoned pool by Wairarapa Stream, Clifford Ave
27.11.13. Quake damaged house by Wairarapa Stream, Clifford Ave
Regarding the post-quake housing crisis, Brownlee now prevaricated about a "housing pinch!"
27.11.13. Orange, plastic, road cone detour. Clifford Ave road works opp Mona Vale
27.11.13. Quake damaged gates, Fendalton Rd. Wood braced garden wall
*Trekked Wairarapa Tce, Garden Rd, N Hagley Park, Clifford Ave, Fendalton Rd. 33 images.
Wednesday 03.12.13. OneNews reported that the Appeal Court overturned the High Court's ruling that red-zoning was unlawful. The red-zone was lawful again, so minister Brownlee could proceed with CERA's Port Hills zoning review.
But the Appeal Court ruled that CERA's offering of only half of the 2007 government valuation was unlawful for uninsured red-zone vacant-land & uninsured red-zone housing, so CERA must review offers on uninsured red-zone land / housing. The legal precedent was set, so those who had CERA offers on uninsured red-zone land & uninsured red-zone housing could take government to court for a better offer. And post 22 February 2011 Quake, PM Key had said no one would be worse off!
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Port Hills deadline extended (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Unlikely consents processed (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Detailed maps Port Hills movement (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Nightmare delay for new rules (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Mayor queries value of EQC advisory service (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Dying man in EQC battle (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Severe housing stress forecast (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Brownlee slams council housing failure (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Housing pinch to worsen until 2017 (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Christchurch city takes shape: goodbye red zone (The Press / Stuff Co).
See joint approach to increase residential red zone clearances (CERA media release 28 November 2013).
See Ruling over unlawful buyouts upheld (The Press / Stuff Co).
See 270 Port Hills homes rezoned (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel impresses with Mandarin love songs (The Press / Stuff Co).
Gave permission for an ARA journalist student to use a Wairarapa Stream image for a Metronews article.
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