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Flood Protection Management Bylaw
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The ORC provides flood protection and land drainage across 43,000ha of rural and urban land in Otago.
The Flood Protection Management Bylaw 2022 came into effect on 1 September 2022. It safeguards our flood protection and land drainage assets.
September 2022
ISBN 978-0-908324-84-2
PDF | 2 MB
The Flood Protection Management Bylaw ensures the effective operation and integrity of flood protection works managed by the Otago Regional Council. It regulates activities affecting assets like drains, overland flow paths, floodbanks, floodways, groynes, cross-banks, training lines, and flood protection vegetation. This bylaw supersedes the 2012 version.
September 2022
PDF | 180 KB
The Flood Protection Management Bylaw:
- identifies important assets owned and managed by ORC, including scheduled drains and overland flow paths, defences against water, floodways, groynes, crossbanks, a training line, 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 the process for applying for Council approval under the Bylaw, essentially ‘written permission’ to do works near these regionally significant assets.
- 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. You may not alter the assets, carry out earthworks, plant or remove trees, shrubs or hedges, place structures where they may stop the asset from working well, or allow livestock to damage assets. If you own land near one of the assets included in the Bylaw, it may affect you.
The Bylaw applies to structures owned or managed by the ORC on public and private land, which are shown in the Schedules to the Bylaw.
These include but are not limited to:
- drains
- overland flow paths
- defences against water (e.g. rock buttresses and floodbanks)
- floodways
- groynes
- cross-banks
- training lines
- flood protection vegetation.
These structures protect people, property, and livelihoods during floods.
Anyone who wants to carry out work near a scheduled asset must be granted approval first.
The bylaw doesn’t stop people from doing any work on their land, but it does make sure that any work doesn’t damage a scheduled flood protection structure or drain – which helps to keep us all safe in flood events and ensures our drainage network operates effectively.
A bylaw approval is written permission from the ORC. It sets out the conditions a landowner must follow to make sure scheduled flood protection structures are not damaged or compromised.
This is a drain, overland flow path, defence against water, floodway, groyne, cross-bank, training line or flood protection vegetation that is identified in the Schedules to the Bylaw.
Review the maps below to check whether the Bylaw identifies any scheduled assets on your property.
Yes – the cost of assessing each application is charged to the Applicant. The cost of assessment will depend upon the complexity and completeness of the application. A $300 deposit must be paid before we commence our assessment, and the remainder of the actual time-based cost of assessing and approving or declining the application will be invoiced upon completion.
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.
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.
We adopted a new bylaw in 2022.
Appendix Two of the Bylaw includes an application form, and you can download an application form from here.
The Bylaw applies to:
- Lower Clutha
- Tokomairiro
- Lower, East and West Taieri
- Leith Lindsay
- Hilderthorpe
- Waitaki
- Alexandra
- Albert Town
- Hendersons and Waikoura Creeks
- Lower Waitaki
- Shotover River Delta
Search an address and see if it is affected by the bylaw.
If you prefer to view the map in its own browser window/tab, you can do so on maps.orc.govt.nz.
First Schedule - Scheduled Drains and Overland Flow Paths
Second Schedule - Defences against water and excavation sensitive areas
- Lower Clutha
- Lower Taieri
- Lower Taieri Sheet 1 (Outram area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 2 (Mosgiel area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 3 (Dunedin Airport area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 4 (Momona and Allanton area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 5 (Berwick area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 6 (Otokia area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 7 (Henley area)
- Leith Lindsay
- Alexandra
- Albert Town
Third Schedule - Floodways
- Lower Clutha
- Lower Taieri (Upper Pond)
- East Taieri Silver Stream
- Lower Taieri River Floodway Overview
- Lower Taieri Sheet 1 (Allanton and Dunedin Airport area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 2 (Otokia area)
- Lower Taieri Sheet 3 (Henley area)
- Miller Road
- Otokia Road
- Hendersons and Waikoura Creeks
- Hilderthorpe
Fourth Schedule - Groynes, Cross-banks, training line and Flood Protection Vegetation Boundary
For further enquiries email bylaws@orc.govt.nz or phone: 0800 474 082
