About 100 people turned out, plus about 90 watched the presentation on zoom.
One attendee said the mood was one of ‘‘attentiveness, deep concern and yes, good humour’’.
Their concerns followed the council buying a $3.8 million block of land at Ashworths Rd, Leithfield, in the face of the growing risk of sea level rise to its beach communities.
The initiative to buy the Ashworths Rd property to the south of Amberley for future relocation of beach residents is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Hurunui Mayor Marie Black said at the time buying the property gave people options and allowed them to prepare for future events.
‘‘This land purchase is about putting people first, providing security in mitigating against the effects of coastal hazards, while leading the way in proactive coastal relocation.’’
But Amberley Beach residents did not find the ‘‘security’’ a great comfort, and demanded answers to many questions about their future, particularly around the detail about buying sections in the new block, and the compulsion to do so.
Bernie Hall, who has lived at the beach for 23 years with her husband John, said words like ‘‘purpose and potential’’ were encouraging.
Pro-active relocation and the fact details of the purchase were made clear also helped.
‘‘Now we have a site 185 Ashworths Rd. We have an invitation to go and see the site. The land, 22 hectares, is on a terrace off Hursley Tce, well above sea level.
‘‘It has a view of the sea and 109 of the 200 sections will go to beach residents.’’
Other at-risk coastal communities may also be able to pick up on the offer ‘‘but we have first dibs’’, says Bernie.
She says it will be a three to five year process, but at the moment beach residents were committed to ‘‘nothing’’, and ‘‘we don’t have to like the plan and we don’t have to sign up’’.
‘‘There's a long road ahead but it was cheering .... to be part of a crowd, to have assurances that we are the ones who will make our own choices.
‘‘Also cheering is to know the sections being offered are all 700sq m — even stevens — though some will have the best view.’’
Bernie says ‘‘our properties and the purchased sections’’ will be tied together.
‘‘It will be years before we sign the legal papers if we choose to. There is no commitment until we sign these.’’
She says beach dwellers are the ones — the only ones — who pay for the bund protecting their properties at Amberley Beach, in addition to ‘‘our property rates’’.
‘‘And we do this voluntarily. All these are rather extraordinary co-operative moves aligning council and residents.’’
There have been five to six years of meetings via the Amberley Beach Resident Association and the council to get to this point.
‘‘It was with increased clarity and confidence that John and I left the meeting last evening. Big thanks to all involved, including the attendees who cracked a good joke or two.
‘‘We love our beach life.
‘‘The trees, the birds, the water, the big sky. The space. The quiet.
‘‘All worth working for.’’
Another resident said she found the meeting ‘‘informative and useful’’.
‘‘Having been away from Amberley for the past five and a half years I was feeling very ‘‘out of the loop’’ and rather confused about what was happening with regard to a managed retreat.
‘‘I think a lot of misconceptions were dealt with.
‘‘I now understand that, basically, beach residents don’t need to do anything for at least three to five years, other than to consider their future options.
‘‘Land will be made available for those who want it, but the bund, with renourishment when needed, is expected to keep the beach community safe for the next 25-30 years.’’
However, another resident, who moved to the beach settlement three years ago, is not happy and feels the issues on the table have divided the community.
‘‘We moved from city life wanting a change, a quieter life and feeling of community.
‘‘We have that at the beach, or at least up until now.
‘‘We realised very quickly that life here has its challenges, and that our local district council has its agenda for our ‘‘so called future’’, and ‘‘wanting to take care of our safety in the form of the award winning CAP (Coastal Adaptation Plan).
‘‘I thought that the plan was to look at options for our future and possible triggers that might occur that would raise discussions at that point.
‘‘Certainly not within two years of the CAP being adopted, and to be fair no weather events that have moved us towards any of the trigger points agreed in the plan.’’
He got the feeling from the meeting last week that council chief executive Hamish Dobbie was ‘‘very keen to push forward with parts of the CAP’’.
The resident said a lack of a timeline, the pressure to buy in to get the value of an added title of another section ‘‘stapled’’ to your current title, not enough information about the true costs, and if you would be paying rates on two sections, and what they would be, has left him feeling unhappy about the situation.
‘‘Our big issue is the timing of all this, and the what ifs and when. Why the big push now?’’
