The South Taranaki District Council is seeking public submissions on the proposed earthquake-prone buildings policy.

The proposals identify Hawera, Eltham and Opunake town centres as priority areas where timeframes for strengthening earthquake-prone buildings would be halved.

Under the new guidelines, South Taranaki has been categorised as a medium-seismic risk area. This means potential quake-prone buildings should be identified within 10 years, and building owners must strengthen or demolish quake-prone buildings within 25 years.

“However, ‘priority buildings’ must be identified and remediated in half that time,” council building control manager Lindsey MacPhail said.

Priority buildings are those unreinforced masonry buildings (with hazards such as parapets or verandas) located in areas which have sufficient vehicle and pedestrian traffic, that would either pose a high risk to life, or are critical to emergency recovery, if they fell during an earthquake.

The council proposes that commercially zoned areas in Hawera (town centre), Eltham and Opunake (mixed use) be used as the basis for determining priority buildings.

“The council considers these areas have sufficiently high pedestrian and vehicular traffic to warrant the ‘priority building’ classification because this is where the highest numbers of people go to shop and do business,” MacPhail noted.

Moreover, the council is also seeking views on whether there are any emergency routes that should be prioritised. It highlighted that it has not identified any routes that would be impeded by a building collapse, which didn’t already have an alternative access option.

Consultation closes September 24.