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Speaker 1: Heller duper Cela. Now this next story may sound at

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Speaker 1: first like I'm making it up, but I promise you

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Speaker 1: I'm not. An urban design company has come up with

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Speaker 1: a plan to protect Westport from flooding by actually moving

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Speaker 1: the whole town up a hill. The idea is to

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Speaker 1: get some land corp land on some high ground off

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Speaker 1: the government, then build a new Westport there and gradually

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Speaker 1: move everyone in the old Westport to the new location.

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Speaker 1: The plan was presented to the Buller District Council yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Jamie Klin is the mayor of Buller and he's with us.

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Speaker 2: Now, Hey Jamie, goody, good evening, Heather, how are you well?

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Speaker 1: Thank you to quote Queen Jamie. Is this real life

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Speaker 1: or is this just fantasy?

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Speaker 2: Look? It is real life. But I think the keyword

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Speaker 2: there is gradually. So initially this is about a option

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Speaker 2: and a plan for growth for Westport, but off the

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Speaker 2: back of growth and having a plan, and having a

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Speaker 2: master plan in particular creates effectively an insurance policy for

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Speaker 2: Westport for the twenty fifty one hundred years in the future, So.

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Speaker 1: You could basically continue to run the town where it

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Speaker 1: is and build the wall that you are to protect

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Speaker 1: it from the Buller River. But as you develop, this

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Speaker 1: is the only land that you now develop, its land

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Speaker 1: that's on higher ground. Would that be fair?

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Speaker 2: Look not the only land we develop. I mean there's

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Speaker 2: mitigations and things that can be done in the hazard

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Speaker 2: zone as well, but certainly obviously long term there's a

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Speaker 2: hazard stack that exists over Westport. Building some flood protection

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Speaker 2: is a key element of that to buy us some

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Speaker 2: time and protect what's here now. But part of a

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Speaker 2: key part of master planning is not only where future

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Speaker 2: resport goes, but also how you manage and ensure that

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Speaker 2: what we've got here now is able to prosper and

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Speaker 2: do well as well. So it's important that we consider

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Speaker 2: both sides of the river.

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Speaker 1: If you like Jamie, how how do you avoid though,

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Speaker 1: people staying in the old Westport Because presumably what you

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Speaker 1: want to do is you want to, you know, through attrition,

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Speaker 1: basically get people to buy all in the new development

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Speaker 1: as they set like. So for example, let's say you're

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Speaker 1: living in the old Westport, you sell your house when

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Speaker 1: you move, you'd like them to move up the hill

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Speaker 1: into the new Westport. How do you prevent them from

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Speaker 1: not just buying another house in the old Westport and

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Speaker 1: staying put.

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Speaker 2: So you're not going to prevent anyone nothing. There's nothing

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Speaker 2: compulsory about any of this. This is about a long

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Speaker 2: term vision around where people have options to build in

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Speaker 2: less hazard prone land in the future. So so that

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Speaker 2: you know, the trick and the key is to is

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Speaker 2: to manage the hazards that exists for old town if

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Speaker 2: you like, but you know, but also planning for what's

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Speaker 2: the potential for for a long term future.

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Speaker 1: But most likely outcome Jamie that you're just going to

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Speaker 1: end up with a big Westport where people are still

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Speaker 1: living in the dodgy pat and some people are still

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Speaker 1: living in the good part.

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Speaker 2: But pretty nice to be about to give people some

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Speaker 2: options and hope and choice. So I guess if if

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Speaker 2: you if you know there's another significant event you know,

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Speaker 2: of course we're not just talking flooding here. We're talking about,

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Speaker 2: you know, multiple hazards. There's obviously a fate and other

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Speaker 2: risks that are on the on the plane here a

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Speaker 2: fate earthquake Alpine Fall eight earthquake, which is obviously concerning

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Speaker 2: large parts of the South Island as well. So there's

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Speaker 2: you know, there's the point is that it's not just

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Speaker 2: flooding we're worried about. It's it's other things and long

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Speaker 2: term there's some great land we're very fortunate to have

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Speaker 2: proximity to Less has a prone land that we can

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Speaker 2: explore over the coming generations.

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Speaker 1: But does this mean that we've just paid a bunch

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Speaker 1: of people five hundred thousand to tell us that the

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Speaker 1: next part of town that we developed should be Upper Hill,

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Speaker 1: which is just obvious.

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Speaker 2: No. So, I mean there's a lot more to it

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Speaker 2: than that. I mean there's one element, clearly, elevation is helpful,

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Speaker 2: but no, this is this is about being a community

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Speaker 2: driven plan. So certainly very clever people from ISTHMUS have

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Speaker 2: have have got the plan to where it is now.

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Speaker 2: The next phase is that community engagement and understand whether

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Speaker 2: or not you know that we've got that right if

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Speaker 2: you like, test that with the community and ultimately land

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Speaker 2: a final plan that then we champion is then how

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Speaker 2: do we gradually make that possible over the coming decades.

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Speaker 1: Jamie, thanks for talking us through to appreciate it. That's

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Speaker 1: Jammie Kline the buller Maire. For more from Heather Duplessy,

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to News Talks. It'd be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio