How stringent earthquake laws could destroy heartland NZ towns
Damian Spittal spends his days fixing and selling computers, camera systems and retro video games from his 120 sq m shop on Dannevirke’s High St. Foot traffic is low – on a good day he might have a dozen customers, he says. But the old Sega and Nintendo games bring in plenty of out-of-towners passing through.
He bought the building and opened his business in 2014. It’s his life and his livelihood. He has been in the IT industry for 30 years and he thought “Damian’s Computers and Security” would take him through to retirement.
But under legislation passed by the National government in 2016, five years after the Christchurch earthquakes, Spittal’s shop has been designated earthquake-prone by the Tararua District Council. He has until June 2031 to do the necessary seismic work to get it up to compliance with the amended Building Act.
He says this isn’t going to happen. “I bought it for about $50,000. But the experts reckon it’ll take $200,000 to fix. So the figures just don’t stack up.”
The building has been a feature of Dannevirke’s retail main street since 1909. Wedged between a Salvation Army op shop on one side and an outdoors retailer on the other, he has ensured it keeps its old school charm. The front windows are framed with wood with the original leadlight detailing. On the top of the building, “Damian’s” stands out against a black corrugated iron panel in a gold, cursive font.
He’s considered all of his options, including demolition. But that’s another big cost. “I’m self-employed. If I pull my shop down, how will I pay the $60,000 it costs back?”
Now Spittal has accepted that he will lose his business and his building in seven years. “I figure I’ll be off to buy a ‘93 Hiace and set up shop from a van somewhere,” he scoffs.
He exudes the signs of a man who has accepted his fate, so it’s hard to tell if he’s joking. But the laughter is forced – Spittal recognises the issue is bigger than he is. Tararua District Council has identified 138 potentially earthquake-prone buildings under the new regulations, and that’s just one local body. Thousands of building owners throughout much of New Zealand are commissioning reports and crunching the numbers, trying to work out how they can get their buildings up to the new building code standards.
A lot of them – building owners and council members alike – say the new law has gone too far. Passed after the devastation of Christchurch, it established a streamlined national system for managing earthquake-prone buildings.
But many of the nearly 3000 buildings identified in Aotearoa so far are in small towns. And with tight deadlines and next to no funding support from central government, councils and communities are worried they will end up with towns peppered with empty buildings.