Our environment is our most important asset. We work with the community to ensure the sustainable use of our natural resources. The future of our beautiful region starts with protecting and caring for it today.
We work with the community to promote the sustainable management of natural physical resources. The Resource Management Act sets out how we should manage our environment and forms the foundation for the majority of our work.
This report presents the recommendations of the Hearing Panel to Otago Regional Council (ORC) in relation to the Proposed Flood Protection Management Bylaw 2022 (accepted by Councillors 29 June 2022).
The Local Government Act 2002 requires all bylaws to be reviewed every ten years. This ensures the rules are still fit for purpose, informed by the latest science and data and informed by experience from previous floods. This Bylaw was last reviewed in 2012 and we need to adopt a new Bylaw by August 2022.
Until any proposed changes are agreed and adopted the 2012 Bylaw and the information on this page remains relevant.
What is the Flood Protection Management Bylaw?
The Flood Protection Management Bylaw:
identifies important assets owned and managed by ORC, including scheduled drains and overland flow paths, floodbanks, floodways, groynes, crossbanks and flood protection vegetation.
protects them by outlining activities that people cannot carry out in, on, under, or near those assets without the authority of ORC.
outlines when people need to talk with Regional Council and if necessary, apply for a Bylaw Authority, essentially ‘written permission’ to do works near these regionally significant assets. Bylaw Authorities are assessed and granted in a similar way to resource consent applications.
identifies things landowners need to do, such as keeping structures in good repair, and fences and gates in floodways are kept free of debris
allows Council to require that drains are fenced to keep livestock out of waterways and access to and from assets is controlled if needed.
Several activities are restricted, including altering the assets, carrying out earthworks, planting or removing trees, placing structures where they may reduce their effectiveness, and allowing livestock to damage assets amongst others. The Bylaw may affect a number of people, especially those who live near one of our assets.
About the bylaw
The Bylaw applies to structures owned or managed by Otago Regional Council on both public and private land.
These include but are not limited to:
Scheduled drains
Overland flow paths
Defences against water (e.g. rock buttresses and floodbanks)
Floodways
Groynes
Cross-banks
Training lines
Flood protection vegetation.
These structures help protect people, property, and livelihoods from experiencing the full effect of flood events.
Anyone who wants to carry out work within the Bylaw applicable area must apply for a Bylaw Authority before any work is started.
A Bylaw Authority is essentially written permission from Regional Council, with certain conditions attached, that a landowner must do to ensure the flood protection assets are not damaged or compromised.
The Bylaw isn't in place to stop people from doing any work on their land, but instead ensures any work carried out does not inadvertently affect the integrity of a flood protection structure or drain – which helps to keep us all safe in flood events.
The Local Government Act 2002 requires all bylaws to be reviewed every ten years.
This ensures the rules are still fit for purpose and are informed by the latest science and data and experience from recent floods.
This Bylaw was last reviewed in 2012, and we need to adopt the new Bylaw by August 2022.
Anyone who wants to carry out work within the Bylaw applicable area must apply for a Bylaw Authority before any work is started.
A Bylaw Authority is essentially written permission from Regional Council with certain conditions attached that a landowner must do to ensure the flood protection structure is not damaged or compromised.
The bylaws aren’t in place to stop people from doing any work on their land, but instead ensure any work carried out doesn’t inadvertently affect the integrity of the flood protection structure or drain – which help keep us all safe in major floods.
An area where the bylaws apply and where landowners must apply for authority before starting certain activities. In the Otago region, these are areas such as drains, overland flow paths, or floodways.
You can view this online map where you can search for an address and see if the property is affected by the bylaw.
You can review the maps below to check if your property is currently within a bylaw applicable area and/or apply for a bylaw authority.
When applying to carry out an activity near a flood protection scheme a deposit of $300 is to be paid with your application, and as appropriate, additional costs be invoiced, or refunds made to reflect the actual costs.
A rock buttress is a riverbank protection structure that runs along the riverbank, down into the bottom of the riverbed. It reduces the energy of water, so that the river doesn’t erode the riverbank and increase the risk of flooding the surrounding area.
Earthworks refers to the alteration or disturbance of land. This includes moving, placing, blading, cutting, contouring, filling, or excavating the earth. It extends to any other matter making up the land, including soil, clay, sand, and rock.
Defences against water means any defence against water shown in the Second Schedule of the Bylaw, and includes the bed of the Water of Leith and Lindsay Creek as marked in red on the Leith Lindsay map in the Second Schedule. In the Otago region, these include floodbanks in the Lower Clutha, near Balclutha, on the Taieri Plains, and near Alexandra.
The Local Government Act 2002 requires all bylaws to be reviewed every ten years.
This ensures the rules are still fit for purpose, informed by the latest science and data and informed by experience from previous floods.
This Bylaw was last reviewed in 2012 and we need to adopt a new Bylaw by August 2022.
The bylaw maps are split into single documents for more convenient downloading. You can view this online map where you can search for an address and see if it is affected by the bylaw.
