Apologies for this rant but I need to vent some of my frustration & seeing none of you know me it seems a safe place to do so!
Our town Council, Napier NZ (~pop 62,000) is currently undergoing their long term planning review. I made a verbal submission to this last week re. their wanting to raise $53M (ratepayers + government) to extend our existing Aquarium (which does need an upgrade or just demolishing). It runs at a $1M annual loss as it is and annual visitors include less than 20% locals, rest are visitors/tourists.
My issue is that it is sited right on the beachfront, 100m from sea & we are recognised as having a sea level rise problem here as much of our town is only a few metres above sea level. Pumping keeps us dry.
This is what I said to the Councillors + I included a few powerpoint images with this:
" In all my reading related to the Expansion proposal I cannot see that it has been examined at all through the lens of climate change. I believe the answers to these questions are fundamental to that project. I have asked them of you before but you only had an answer for one, the number of storm surges overtopping into the curent car park as 4 in the past 10 years. Nothing about the projected lifespan of the building nor the height of the site above mean high tide level.
Surely this information should have been considered before all this grand design concept work and detailed business case were even started?
All the climate change projections for Hawkes Bay conclude with us experiencing an increase in the number and strength of storms and higher storm surges, on top of an increasing sea level baseline..... you may be familiar with this graph. It obviously shows a sea level rise that is not just increasing, the upward curve indicates it is accelerating.
And these figures clarify that for 2040 - 60 is projected to rise 20 - 40 cm above 1995 levels, that is 35 - 55 cm since 1870."
If you want more of a a peek at the propsed design you can here:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/watch-virtual-flyover-gives-stunning-sneak-peek-napiers-epic-proposed-national-aquarium-expansionIt looks wondeful, grand, I know, but involves an even larger floor area in the basement....
I tried to remind them they need to consider the longer term impacts but they weren't listening to me of course. Decided to go to the next stage. & They haven't even had any geotechnical assessment done yet.
Even with one Councillor saying & in greater detail the same thing. I imagine it's the same scenario everywhere, not just with our small town Council!
Apologies for the rave, one just does their best. I'm a lot more useful just going out every week or so picking up all the trash dropped in my street.
This pic is from the proposed design;