Tö mätou mahere

ngahuru tau
Our 10-year Plan
2024-34 Long-term Plan Volume 3 - Our detailed strategic direction and key strategies

Absolutely Positively
WeMîz›gtoaCityCounciI

Ihirangi Contents
Section 1: Strategic Direction..........................................--------------------------------*	Section 3: Financial Strategy.	141
our city Strategy	s	Introduction.	142
A vision for Wellington City .....................................................................................5	Part 1 - Our investment capacity and infrastructure demands.	142
Our strategic aspiration .......................................................................................... 6	Part 2 — Responding to Council‘s financial challenges	146
what success IooI‹s IiI‹e .........................................................................................15	Appendices.	1s5

Cultural outcome	15
Social outcome	17
Economic outcome.	19
Urban Form Outcome.	20
Environmental outcome.	23
Appendices.	26
Section 2: Infrastructure Strategy.................................................................. Introduction.	43
Strategic Context.	45
Significant Assumptions.	48
Significant Infrastructure Challenges	49
Responding to the challenges	57
Principal options by activity.	71
Appendices.	138
Appendix 1— NIWA forecasting assumptions	138
Appendix 2 —Summary of community facilities issues	139

Other mandatory financial strategy disclosures	155

		

Wähanga 1 I Section 1

Ahunga rautaki
Stzateg1c
Direction

Kei ténei wähanga
hei ténei wähanga nei, l‹o ngä taipitopito whänui mö te ahunga ä-rautal‹i, térä e ärahi ana i tö mätou mahere ngahuru tau. Ida whai wähi l‹i ténei, I‹o ngä möhiohio mö töna whaI‹atinanatanga, me te wähi l‹i a ia i te I‹auneI‹etanga l‹i te pae tawhiti e tümanaI‹otia ana.

In this section

This section includes the full details of our strategic direction that guides our Long-term Plan. This includes how we will apply it and see progress towards our vision.

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	3

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	4

Cultural outcome: A welcoming. diverse and creative city
The Wellington city heartbeat	Wellington City's rich and diverse arts	To further strengthen Wellington's

reverberates through arts, culture and creativity, serving as a cornerstone for community wellbeing, inclusivity, and vibrancy. It empowers us to honour the past, cherish the present, and imagine a myriad of possibilities for the future. Just as our infrastructure embraces all, regardless of visible or

scene, while still top-ranl‹ed, is	culturat fabric, initiatives such as
facing a decline in its perception as	 conscious procurement practices, the arts capital. To address this,	increased funding for arts and
ongoing investment in cultural	 cultural events, and celebrating local activities is essential to maintain the	 history, including that of the rainbow city's vibrant creative identity.	 community, are vital. Balancing Despite high overall participation,	 colonial heritage with multicultural there are notable disparities among	 diversity, preserving green spaces tow-income earners and disabled	and historic houses, and integrating individuals, emphasising the need for	 blue-green infrastructure align with accessible and inclusive arts	 community preferences. This programs to ensure everyone can	 strategic approach wilt not only engage in cultural activities.	 revive Wellington's cultural

invisible disabilities, creative spaces foster belonging and participation, weaving individuals into the vibrant social tapestry that enriches our collective quality of life.

Efforts to enhance the visibitity of Mäori identities and storytelting are seeing positive trends, but discrimination and challenges to culturat expression persist. lt is crucial to continue collaborative initiatives with mana vvhenua and Mäori artists to foster pride and connection to indigenous heritage. Additionalty, integrating mâtauranga Mäori into urban planning and supporting the struggling arts sector economicatly will help bridge the gap between heritage preservation, economic sustainability, and community weltbeing.

reputation but also contribute to the wellbeing and satisfaction of the city's residents.

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034

Wellington City Council

6

Economic outcome: An innovative business friendly city
Economic activities are vital for the prosperity and vitality of Wellington City, playing a pivotal role in surmounting challenges and nurturing sustainable growth. The Council's support in economic development encourages business growth and innovation, often leads to job creation, helps attract and retain talent, and can help reduce poverty and inequality.

Despite a decline in the central city's ease of access, economic attractiveness in suburbs is on the rise, showcasing the importance of fostering economic activities and circular economy practices beyond the city core. The city centre continues to be a hub for employment, with retail spending rebounding to pre-COVlD levels, contributing to economic resilience.
As tourism returns and sl‹ilts shortages ease, the region's housing solutions for city employees and the growing trend of remote worl‹ contribute to a more circular and economically robust system. Efforts to enhance suburban amenities, multi-modal connectivity including cycling and watl‹ing infrastructure, and implementing mixed zoning reflect a comprehensive approach to economic growth and accessibility.

City-ted conversations, partnerships, and transitioning to a circular economy demonstrate a commitment to innovative economic development. Furthermore, the focus on accessibility and inclusive design ensures that transportation infrastructure adheres to circular economy values by serving the diverse needs of everyone in the community. Wellington embraces the economic significance of arts and culture, incorporating te ao Mâori to build trust and enrich the cultural

ecosystem in alignment with circutar principtes.
In the city centre, addressing housing supply and affordabte housing, fostering community spaces, and engaging the creative community contribute to economic vibrancy.
Supporting local smalt businesses, particularly those led by women, Mäori, and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, underscores a commitment to diverse economic growth. Encouraging higher value sectors til‹e tech, innovation, and manufacturing, atong with organising regutar events and promoting sustainabitity, afigns with a holistic economic development strategy for Wellington City.
These actions exemplify Wellington's commitment to circular economic principles that foster economic vibrancy and prioritise convenience while minimising environmental impact.

		

Urban Form outcome: A liveable and accessible. compact city
The city's urban form is the most tangible and obvious activity the Council delivers. The way we live is evolving, and we must provide for a city that can continue to thrive, now and into the future. The hum of traffic and the hum of life intertwine. The design of urban spaces directly impacts quality of life and economic activity. The layouts of streets influence how people move and play a significant role in shaping environmental outcomes and resilience to climate change and disasters. Urban form also influences public health outcomes, social equity and inclusion, and reflects cultural heritage and identity.

Public transport is a l‹ey priority for the community. We're embracing cycling not just as a mode of transport but as a beat in our urban rhythm. In our debates about cycling infrastructure and concerns about parl‹ing, there's a personal touch. It's about finding a balance that respects our heritage, welcomes everyone, and integrates the green spaces that breathe life into our city. It's more than just a plan; it's about creating a space that mirrors our values, where ever corner tells a story, and every step IS a beat in the rhythm of our lives.
As we envision a city with green spaces for everyone, we're not just planning; we're crafting a home where everyone, irrespective of age or ability, can find their place. In the heartbeat of Wellington City, our actions in infrastructure and urban planning are shaping not just our physical landscape but the very essence of our community. We're navigating challenges together, til‹e ensuring the seismic safety of our buildings white preserving the vibrant soul of places lil‹e Courtenay Place. This isn't just about structures; it's about the heartbeat of our city.

Beneath the surface, there's a call for change. Leal‹ing pipes and the impending need for reform urge us to adopt sustainable solutions. It's not just about cleaner streets; it's about initiatives lil‹e permeable pavements

and rain gardens are our small yet impactfut steps towards a more sustainable and greener home.
The struggle with housing affordability touches us alt. It's more than just numbers; it's about ensuring every member of our community has a place to call home. The choices we mal‹e, be it demolishing old structures or embracing earthqual‹e-resilient infrastructure, are decisions about the future resilience of our city. And woven into this fabric is the commitment to address homelessness, to illuminate our streets not just with lights but with a sense of safety and belonging.

Environmental outcome: A city restoring and protecting nature
The environment directly impacts public health — air and water quality, access to green spaces and exposure to pollutants impact on physical and mental health. A healthy environment contributes to community resilience and liveability. Natural resource management is essential for environmental health and vitality, and resilience to climate change. Green infrastructure can also have economic benefits for local communities.

In Wellington, we're not just confronting environmental challenges; we're on a mission to forge a sustainable future that resonates with our values. With recycling habits slipping and visible issues in our water networl‹, the urgency for change is clear. The community's fervent commitment to addressing climate change underscores the significance of our collective actions, propelling us toward outcomes that truly matter.
It's not merely about waste management; it's about envisioning a city where sustainability isn't an option but a necessity. Engaging the community in clean-up efforts and reducing carbon emissions aren't just actions; they're pathways to outcomes that actively adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change, safeguarding our city's future.
Our push for a revamped transport system that prioritises pedestrians and cyclists isn't just about convenience; it's a commitment to an eco-friendly, accessible city. Green spaces aren't just for show; they're integral to crafting an environment where nature thrives alongside our urban lifestyle, contributing to our health and vitality, and the health of the planet.

Aligned with Sustainable Development Goals and Doughnut Economics (living within planetary boundaries and fair and just social systems) principles, we're not settling for mere survival. We're worl‹ing towards a Wellington that thrives sustainably, driven by the understanding that every action, every outcome, is a building btocl‹ for a healthier, more resilient city. This isn't just about change; it's about ensuring a legacy of vitality and harmony for generations to come.

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	10

Council's Long-term Plan Priorities

From community engagement (refer to Appendix 1: Community Engagement) and our existing strategies and challenges, the Council has identified nine strategic priorities that will step us towards our vision and outcomes. The Strategic Priorities will guide how we invest in the city.
We expect to see the impacts from our investment over the mid-term (1- 5 years and 5-10 years) through a suite of impact indicators providing trend data (see Appendix 6: Impact trend Indicators). The first four Strategic Priorities are focused on significant infrastructure investment needed.

Fix our water infrastructure and improve the health of waterways
This priority recognises the critical importance of reliable and efficient water infrastructure for community wellbeing and environmental sustainability, addressing deficiencies in the existing water systems and restoring ecological balance of local waterways. It involves targeted efforts to repair, upgrade, and modernise water treatment and distribution systems to ensure safe, clean water for residents. Activities can also include environmental stewardship such as pollution mitigation, habitat restoration, and sustainable water management practices.
Transform our transport system to move more people with fewer vehicles
This priority recognises the imperative to create a more sustainable, efficient and equitable transport networl‹, by prioritising public transport, active transport and innovative mobility solutions. The goal is to reduce congestion, tower carbon emissions, enhance accessibility and improve overall urban liveability. This includes transport infrastructure and

ptacemal‹ing investments, partnerships for innovative mobility, and education or promotional activities that support these goals.
Invest in sustainable. connected and accessible community and recreation facilities
This priority recognises the pivotal role of community and recreation facilities in fostering social cohesion, promoting active lifestyles, and enhancing quality of life. Activities must deliver on Te Awe Mâpara the Community Facilities Plan.
Transform our waste system to enable a circular economy
This priority recognises the need to shift from a disposat-oriented system to a model that prioritises sustainabitity, resource efficiency and environmentat stewardship.
Programmes and infrastructure that encourage waste minimisation and circular economy practices, recycting and composting infrastructure, or collaboration with private sector.
Activities must align to the He anamata para l‹ore mô Pönel‹e Zero Waste Strategy and the Wellington Region Waste Management and Minimisation Plan.

Ba mâlaa mAasa agAasa laa | Me  ■ -	Bæ  IIÉB—OI W		Il

These five LTP Priorities are focused on ongoing efforts that require community engagement. partnerships. and efficient and effective regulation and service delivery.

Increase access to good. affordable housing to improve the wellbeing of our communities
This priority recognises the fundamental importance of secure, safe, warm, dry, and affordable housing for the wellbeing of our communities. This includes improvements in the planning processes and district plan zoning / requirements that increase housing density and the number of dwellings available, streamlining consenting, housing development partnerships, or infrastructure that unlocks development opportunities.

Revitalise the city and suburbs to support a thriving and resilient economy and support job growth
This priority recognises the dynamic interplay between physicat and economic aspects of communities. lt seel‹s to breathe new life into urban and suburban spaces, creating environments conducive to economic prosperity, aiming to attract businesses and generate emptoyment opportunities. This includes creating mixed-use spaces, improving infrastructure and physicat amenity to enhance the appeat and functionality of the area, district plan zoning, repurposing poorly used areas, engagement and partnerships with businesses education sector and developers. Activities must align to the He Rautal‹i Ôhanga Oranga Economic Wetlbeing Strategy.
Celebrate and make visible te ao Mâori across our city
This priority recognises our commitment to honour, acknowledge and integrate Mâori perspectives and identities into our urban environment. It fosters a sense of inclusivity, understanding, and respect for te ao Mâori among all residents and visitors. This includes incorporating te reo Mâori, tikanga, art and history into public spaces, events, and governance, or enabling storytelling platforms.

Nurture and grow our arts sector
This priority recognises the intrinsic value of arts in enriching cultural identity, fostering learning and innovation, and enhancing quality of life. We are seel‹ing to create an environment where artistic expression thrives, artists are empowered, and the community benefits from the social, economic, and cultural contributions of a dynamic and resilient arts community. Initiatives could include arts funding and grants, cultural events and festivals, creative community resources and infrastructure, opportunities for the public to engage in arts and culture, or preservation of cultural heritage. Activities must align to Aho Tini Arts, Culture and Creativity Strategy.

Collaborate with our communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change
This priority recognises the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building resilience to the changing climate. It involves actively engaging with diverse community groups to co-create and implement sustainable solutions.
Activities would include nature- based solutions, community adaptation planning, stormwater and flood protection measures, green infrastructure projects, and community engagement.

		

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	13

Cultural outcome:
A welcoming. diverse
and creative city

We will contribute by
Bringing the city to life with the possibility of art and culture around every corner.
lntegrating culturat heritage into our urban form.
Enabling buitt heritage to adapt and change to meet present and future needs such as accessibility, earthqual‹e resitience and ctimate change.
Supporting the arts, culture, and creative sector ecosystem through our activities.
Celebrating our multi-culturat diversity by encouraging and enabling local events and festivals.
Continuing to worl‹ with Rainbow and Disabted communities to mal‹e their stories and histories visible and creating safe, accessible spaces.
lncreasing the presence of te ao Mäori by supporting a growing understanding and recognition of local iwi narratives, identities, histories, and landmarl‹s.

Council's Role in Social Outcomes
Provider — We provide affordable and accessible spaces and venues that enable participation in local arts and cultural activities, storytelling, and entertainment. We integrate local iwi histories, arts, and cultural storytelling through ptacemal‹ing and infrastructure design.
Funder — We give grants to community groups, and fund Council Controtled Organisations, such as Experience Wellington,
to manage severat museums and gatleries, and preservation of taonga Mäori and other treasures.

Partner - The Täl‹ai Here agreement outtines our commitment and partnership values and principtes for worl‹ing together with mana whenua for the best interests of hapori Mäori and communities towards the sustainabte prosperity of Wellington. We worl‹ with other funders and leverage expertise for philanthropic and commercial opportunities, such as tetling our stories through UNESCO City of Film.

Facilitator — We facilitate connections and access to opportunities across arts and culture such as international exchanges and residencies.
Advocate — We promote Wellington to attract and retain talent, students, tourists, and investment.
Regulator — We manage busl‹ing, street closures, safety and traffic to support festivals and other forms of cultural expression.

	

Embedding our strategic approaches

Integrating te ao Mâori
Normalise Mâori culture and reduce racism and discrimination by mal‹ing te ao Maori visible and accessible.

Making our city accessible and
inclusive for all
Embed accessibility and inclusion into how we operate as a city.
Provide information in accessible

Maori Strategy and Aho Tini Arts, Culture and Creativity Strategy.
Value for money and effective delivery
Mal‹e smart use of our resources to

With our Täl‹ai Here partners and	 formats, locations and channets.	 get the best outcomes possible local iwi, identify and enable	 Listen to and advocate for disabled	 within a constrained funding access, use, learning and exposure	peoples’ needs.	environment.
to te reo Maori, restore indigenous

names within our city, and bring

Lift the voices of diverse

Deliver high quality, well managed

indigenous histories to the forefront.

communities’ voices in feedbacl‹	programmes and projects to and consultations.	maximise value for our residents

Support events and cetebrations that give expression to a te ao Mäori presence.
Embedding mátauranga Mãori in all of our strategies and policies.

Proactively plan for and design inclusive services, facilities, and infrastructure.
Fair and equitable distribution of funding for arts and cultural activities, valuing diversity of artistic expression, traditions and

and the city. This also means being
more strategic with the funding we have available

Embedding climate action	perspectives.
Partner with the arts, creative,	Engaging our community
science and innovation sectors to	 Identify opportunities to co-create
explore complex issues, develop	 and shape initiatives that foster a new solutions and show what's	 sense of belonging and support possible. The carbon impact plays	resilient community, creative, and a significant role in decisions	cultural spaces in order to increase around what activities are	 the visibility of te ao Maori,

supported and prioritised.	promote arts, culture, and heritage, and celebrate the city's diverse communities.
Mal‹e good governance decisions that respect the strategies and policies we have developed with the community, such as Tupil‹i Ora

Social outcome:
A city of healthy and

We will contribute by	Council's Role in Social
Delivering equitable outcomes for	Outcomes

Advocate — We facilitate Maori

thriving whânau

people who need more âwhina

Provider — We provide parl‹s,

and Tâl‹ai Here partner-ted

(support).	playgrounds and recreational

initiatives, other community-ted

and communities

Creating safe and interesting environments that encourage social connections.
Evolving towards a more sustainable, resilient and cohesive community facilities networl‹, for people to connect, have fun and belong.
Delivering a flourishing networl‹ of parl‹s and recreation opportunities, interwoven into everyday life, that supports Wetlingtonians to tive well and connect to nature and each other.
\mproving the systems and processes of our public health and safety regulations and enforcement to ensure safety in our city and to mal‹e it easier to do business.
Continuing to support emergency
preparedness and response.

facilities and services, and community facilities and centres, including libraries.
Funder — We fund social housing, and social and recreation organisations. We fund CCOs that provide social and recreation facilities such as the Basin Reserve Trust and Sl‹y Stadium.
Partner — We promote safety and crime prevention by worl‹ing closely with police, supporting community neighbourhood programmes and youth engagement, and providing city street wardens and CCTV.
Facilitator — We coordinate and collaborate with emergency services in response to incidences requiring welfare support, and for natural disasters.

initiatives, and community engagement to lift the voices of marginalised groups to identify their needs and priorities to address social inequities.
Regulator — We set and enforce bylaws that seel‹ to avoid and minimise social harm, and ensure public health and safety.

		

Embedding our strategic approaches

Integrating te ao Mâori

Making our city accessible and	Engaging our community

Support whânau wellbeing

inclusive for all

Utilise inclusive and transparent

through Council activities,
decisions, and planning.
Ensuring that we prioritise grants funding for social and recreation organisations that are delivering impact for Mâori.
Ensure the voices and perspectives of our Tâl‹ai Here partners hapori Maori, rangatahi, tal‹atapui and whânau haua/ tangata whai l‹aha are uplifted, valued and embedded in decision-mal‹ing.

Ensure universal design is at the		 decision-mal‹ing processes. heart of our planning, design and	 Facilitate input from diverse delivery of new services, facilities		communities on their needs and
and spaces.	preferences of social services and
Collaborate with the Council's	community facilities. This Advisory Groups, disabled and	information informs the
rainbow people to ensure	development and maintenance of accessibility and inclusiveness.	 these spaces to ensure they meet
Progressively improve existing		 the needs of alt residents. facilities, services and spaces as we	 Develop comprehensive forward- review, maintain and upgrade		 lOol‹ing plans for community and them.		recreational development that has

Embedding climate action
Support a just transition approach to climate change solutions though our actions and decisions.
Ensure climate change mitigation

Ensure efforts are made to overcome barriers and address disparities in participation to everyday activities.
Ensure our grantees consider accessibility and inclusion in their

positive long-term impacts for
community welfare.
Seel‹ community feedbacl‹ on the effectiveness and satisfaction of our programmes.

and adaptation are front of mind
when investing in and maintaining

pr°jE'C‘S	Value for money and effective
Deliver and support local nature-	delivery

infrastructure, parl‹s, and open

based solutions that contribute to

Mal‹e strategic, integrated

spaces.
Support community conversations and planning to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

climate action and social	 decisions about community wellbeing, such as community	 services, facilities, parl‹s and open gardens and storm water	spaces, in context and with sound
management.	information and research.

Economic outcome:	We will contribute by

Council's Role in Social

An innovative business friendly city

	Building relationships with businesses and foster collaboration to improve city precincts and enhance the night- time economy.
Worl‹ing with businesses and tertiary education providers and deliver business capability programmes to support transitioning to a circular economy, job creation, career development and build sl‹itts for the future worI‹force.

Outcomes
Provider — We provide infrastructure such as transport and water services that are critical for economic development. We undertaI‹e urban renewal projects to revitalise city streets to support the local economy.
Funder — We fund WetlingtonNZ, our CCO for economic development, supporting business innovation and

	Advocate — We advocate internally to ensure our worl‹ across the council is joined up, and we can influence the economy through our procurement policies and practices.
Regulator — Our regulatory teams provide services such as liquor licensing and building consenting which are also important for business success. We regulate land zoning. which

Refocusing and redesigning regulatory services and interactions to be customer centric.
Mal‹ing procurement choices that support local business and employment ecosystems to thrive.
Upgrading suburban town centres to improve the appeal of shopping and connecting with others locally.

Bñ mâlaa mAa8a agAasa laa | Ms ■-	Bo gggg—ggM

attraction, and tourism promotion. We provide City Growth funding to support businesses and communities.
Partner — We partner with developers and crown agencies to invest in the city's venues and infrastructure.
Facilitator — We engage with businesses on council projects and process. We facilitate connection between businesses and education providers to support worI‹force development initiatives.

enables business activities.

Embedding our strategic approaches

lntegrating te ao MäOri	Making our city accessible and
lncrease opportunities for Mäori	inclusive for all
businesses, leaders, entrepreneurs,	 Activety encourage employers in and rangatahi.		the city to be sociatly inclusive and
Support Mâori-ted initiatives that	 accessible. This includes to hire enable greater success for Mâori	people with disabiïities and adjust business and employment.	 Worl‹ptace environments to meet

Engaging our community
Ensure businesses have early visibility on upcoming projects, and a voice at the table to ensure the disruption from infrastructure transformation is managed well.
Worl‹ with affected businesses to

Value for money and effective delivery
Mal‹e our resources worl‹ harder to get the best outcomes possible within a constrained funding environment.
Deliver high quality, well managed

Where appropriate, cetebrate our unique position as Te Upol‹o o te ll‹a as a part of Wellington's identity.
Consider economic outcomes for Mäori in our procurement decisions.

Embedding climate action
Worl‹ with businesses and organisations to better enable the transition to a zero-carbon circular economy.
Choose to worl‹ with businesses that are worl‹ing towards these goals and our procurement policy reflects this. Support a just transition approach to climate change solutions though our actions and decisions.

their needs, paying decent wages and practicing what we preach.
Provide website information in accessible formats so that access to information such as building consents, business compliance, and research, reports and l‹nowtedge are equally available to

Encourage safe and inclusive worl‹ptace environments.
Involve businesses in economic planning and development processes and facilitate access to capital and support programmes particularly for start-ups and small/medium enterprises.

ensure they are supported with a direct relationship and opportunity to contribute.
Ensure transparent decision- mal‹ing processes and open communication about economic policies, incentives and development projects.
Ensure our regulations and policies foster a supportive and predictable business environment.

programmes and projects to maximise value for our residents and the city.

Urban Form Outcome:	Wewill contribute by

Council's Role in Social

A liveable and accessible. compact city

Worl‹ing with GWRC to urgently deliver bus priority improvements, that support reduced travel times, and increased reliability of the services.
Improving accessibility, safety, and resilience when maintaining and improving our roads, cycle lanes and footpaths.
Worl‹ing closely with the community in delivery of cycle ways to support non-cyclists with alternative transport choices.
Utilising the sl‹itls of Mâori, mana whenua and local artists and creators to create a sense of place and identity when investing in infrastructure and placemal‹ing.
Ensuring fighting and cleanliness of the city supports a high-quality experience across the city.
Improving planning and logistics for emergency responses, including slips.
Addressing earthqual‹e resilience of council owned buildings and finding creative ways to support private building owners to address their earthqual‹e prone buildings.

Outcomes
Provider — We provide transport and water infrastructure and invest in resilience. We provide attractive, vibrant public spaces to incentive new development.
Funder — We provide grant funding to support strengthening of heritage buildings.
Partner — We partner with developers and crown agencies to deliver affordable housing.
Facilitator - We engage with communities to co-design and revitalise town centres and streets for people.
Advocate — We advocate for better funding mechanisms and legislation that enables urban development and investment.
Regulator — We regulate land zoning and undertal‹e city planning to enable housing and commercial development. We undertal‹e consenting and inspection of property developments.

		

Embedding our strategic approaches

Integrating te ao MâOri	Making our city accessible and
Elevate and celebrate te ao Mâori	inclusive for all

Engaging our community	Value for money and effective
Ensure that public engagement	delivery

in all spaces, normalising te reo

Mal‹e it easy to move between

shapes the planning and delivery

Deliver high quality, well

Maori, and creating a sense of	 home and worl‹, education, health community pride for alt things	care and social activities, as we Maori within our city. This includes	 maintain and upgrade and build

of the urban environment in	designed, futureproof urban conjunction with data and	infrastructure and buildings evidence driven decision mal‹ing.	designed to last. Projects wilt be

increasing the visual presence of te	new infrastructure.

Conduct targeted engagement

prioritised based on need and

ao Mäori, te reo Mâori and Tâl‹ai Here local iwi histories throughout the city.
ldentify opportunities for co- design and development of buitdings, public spaces and streetscapes and other projects relating to physicat environment, green infrastructure, and waterways.

Embedding climate action
Ensure climate change is at the heart of alt decisions around infrastructure, where investment is made and how we build and maintain our buildings, streetscapes and parl‹s.
Assess the carbon impacts of projects and potential risl‹s from sea-level rise at the beginning of projects to inform decision mal‹ing.

Prioritise inclusivity by ensuring urban development benefits all segments of society and address disparities in access to services, housing and infrastructure.
Encourage building owners to mal‹e accessibitity changes to enable access for all.
Identify opportunities for co- design and development of buildings, public space and streetscapes and other projects relating to physical environment.

efforts that are area or neighbourhood specific to ensure that residents are aware of and understand projects occurring in their communities.
Create opportunities for residents to have their say in the development of projects, and tailor our engagement approach to each area and its unique needs.
Hold ourselves accountable by monitoring and reporting on progress.

strategic alignment.

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	22

Embedding our strategic approaches

Integrating te ao Mâori
Recognising the unique role that

Embedding climate action
Embed climate change mitigation

Engaging our community	Value for money and effective
Provide ongoing education and	delivery

Mana Whenua play as l‹aitial‹i for

and adaption in all decisions and

opportunities for residents to

Mal‹e future focused decisions on

te taiao and grounding our approach to environmental wellbeing in matauranga Maori.
The Council, along with its Tâl‹ai

actions for our natural environment.
Worl‹ across the region and with communities to protect and enrich

participate in climate change	where, how and why we do what mitigation and adaptation efforts,	we do for the benefit of future to promote community resilience	 generations. The impacts of
and engagement in the process.	projects and activities on te taiao

Here partners, Mäori and community groups will worl‹ together to support existing environmentat initiatives and ensure there is a considered approach to addressing major environmental challenges for the next 10 years and beyond.
Seel‹ opportunities for co-design with our Täl‹ai Here partners on initiatives that inctude our

our natural environment - our streams, bush and birds for the health and safety of our people, our resilience to impacts of climate change and for the health of te taiao.
Utilise nature-based solutions to address infrastructure resilience and climate issues.

	Develop relationships with stal‹ehotders and residents to create and implement place-based solutions that protect and enhance the natural environment, white ensuring that access to nature meets the unique needs of each area.
Mal‹e good decisions for the long- term benefit of the community and environment using data and

and climate change will be
prioritised in decisions the Council mal‹es.

environment.
Follow up on iwi-ted approaches to environmental restoration, including the upgrade of a trunl‹ sewer in l¢aiwharawhara stream to prevent wastewater overflow.

Making our city accessible and inclusive for all
Provide spaces in nature that are accessible by wheelchair, and pushchair, as well as places to rest.
Increase accessible parl‹ing spaces, and footpaths that are as smooth and flat as possible.

Provide information that is accessible and easy to find and use so that the disabled community can find services and facilities that meet their individual needs.

evidence and worl‹ in collaboration with local businesses, academic institutions, and community organisations.

Ensure we have mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on progress of environmental goals and targets.

		

		

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Cultural outcome: A welcoming. diverse and creative city
Wellington has a strong identity, and most people thinl‹ it is a great place to live.
People are supportive of the arts generatly, and people report that greater investment would return increased community benefits,

Social outcome: A city of healthy and thriving whânau and communities
People want greater social cohesion through initiatives that enable informal community interaction, such as providing spaces that facilitate connections (e.g., sport and recreation spaces, art spaces, social housing, and spaces for youth, parents of young

for extreme events. People want resilient communities as well as resilient infrastructure (e.g., buildings, water and underground infrastructure), but the associated costs are recognised as an issue.
Economic outcome: An innovative business friendly city
Costs are a big concern to people,

initiatives of many types (and the reported opposition to rates increases).

though initiatives might not necessarily return profits. There is

children, people with disabilities,	particularly when it affects them and cultural communities).	personally. While it appears that

great demand for funding at the grassroots Level, and continuity of funding was fett to be crucial for real effect.
There is support for te ao Mäori to be acl‹nowtedged and for greater

There was a sense amongst respondents that social inequity is growing. Some groups were thought to face more barriers than others to accessing a ’good’ life; the prevalence of alcohol-affected

Council spending is not well understood, people are certain that they do not want ongoing rates rises and higher costs of living.
People support Council objectives

inclusion across many realms of
Council and city life.
Libraries, as community and culturat centres, are vatued and popular assets throughout the city. lt is anticipated that the function

people and homeless on the	 around business and employment streets was cited as evidence of	 and want to see growth in these this, as were poor outcomes for	 areas. Development of digitally some demographic groups. In	innovative economies was particular, equitable access to	 supported, as was a circular housing and support services were	 economy with less wastage.

of libraries will evolve to

sought for alt Wetlingtonians.

The night-time economy, although

encompass a more diverse range of uses, and that a more diverse group of people will visit them in future.

People mostly feet safe, but not in	 enjoyed, is viewed as too alcohol the city at night where alcohol-	 focused and people report that dominated events and activities	intoxicated and unpredictable are perceived as the norm. People	people in the city at night deter feel that more lighting (for	them from visiting. Additionally, amenity and safety) and greater	high costs (e.g., parl‹ing and
police presence could increase	events) are felt to be a deterrent.

Sa E't

There was a lacl‹ of commentary in

The potential impacts of natural	the engagement data about where disasters and climate change are	 funds come from; this was in
well l‹nown to residents, but not	contrast with the stated everyone is adequately prepared	 expectations for Council to fund

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	27

		

		

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council

Appendix4: Strategies that guide delivery on the Strategic Priorities
These priorities are guided by the following strategies and plans:
Strategic Priority	These priorities are guided by the following strategies:
lncrease access to good, affordabte	He Mahere Mokowa mó Póneke I A Spatial Plan for Wellington City

housing to improve the wettbeing of our communities

We have six goals for the city:
Kiato I Compact — We build on the city's layout and structures (its urban form), and mal‹e sure we have quality development in the right places.
Manawaroa I Resilient — Our city's natural and built environments are healthy and robust. Good design encourages physical activity and interaction that fosters social resilience.
Kia ngangahau, kia tönui I Vibrantand prosperous — We welcome social and culturat diversity. We support innovation and invest strategicatly to maintain a thriving economy.
Kia tauawhi, kia tûhono I Inclusive and connected — We're connected by a world-class transport system and have attractive and accessible public spaces that support our diverse community and culturat values.
Tautaiao I Greener — We protect and value our natural environment and enjoy thriving pocI‹ets of nature in the city.
He hoa mahi me te mana whenua I In partnership with mana whenua — We recognise mana whenua's important role and actively partner with them.

Housing Strategy
The outcomes we're lool‹ing for in housing are:
Wellington has a welk-functioning housing system
Homes in Wellington are of good quality and are resitient
Homes meet the needs of Weltingtonians
Our housing system supports sustainable, resilient and connected communities

Revitalise the city and suburbs to support a thriving and resilient economy and support job growth

He Rautaki Öhanga Oranga I Economic Wellbeing Strategy
Wellington is a dynamic city with a resilient, innovative and tow carbon economy that provides opportunities for all and protects our environment. We aim to:

enable Weltingtonians to worl‹ within their passions and strengths
be regenerative by design
be Aotearoa New-Zealand’s city partner of choice for businesses, investors and developers

ÉÉ

Strategic Priority	These priorities are guided by the following strategies:
be Aotearoa New-Zealand’s centre for creativity and innovation
raise the profite of our Capital City
be a compact city with a dynamic CBD and thriving suburban centres that are economicatly productive

Transform our waste system to enable a circular economy

He anamata para kore mö Pöneke I A zero waste future for Wellington - Zero Waste Strategy
Our goal is to achieve intergenerationat sustainability by moving to a circular economy. In a circular economy, economic activity is disconnected from the use of finite resources. Products and materials are l‹ept in use for as long as possible, and waste that can't be reused or recycled is safety managed. We aim to:

avoid unnecessary resource use and to design waste and pollution out.
mal‹e it convenient for residents, businesses, and consumers to reduce and recycle their waste.
treat waste infrastructure built today as a finite resource and carefully manage it, worl‹ing to preserve its capacity and lifespan as long as possible and without harm or teal‹age to the environment.

Celebrate and mal‹e visible te ao Mäori across our city

Tûpiki Ora Mâori Strategy
The vitatity of our environment is nourished, the weltbeing of our whänau is fostered, te ao Mâori is embraced and celebrated. Our priorities are:

Te whal‹atairanga i te ao Maori I Enhancing and promoting te ao Mâori
Tial‹ina te taiao I Caring for our environment
Te whal‹apal‹ari pumanawa I Building capacity
He whânau toiora | Thriving and vibrant communities

Nurture and grow our arts sector

Aho Tini I Arts, Culture and Creativity Strategy
The rich cultural traditions and identity of our capital city inspire our exciting and innovative arts, culture and creativity. Weltingtonians can access and participate in arts and culture, and explore their creativity. Together, in partnership with the arts, culture and creative sectors and with mana whenua and Mâori, creativity, collaboration and innovation are woven through everything we do. We will focus on:

Aho Tangata I Our people — connected, engaged, inclusive, accessible communities
Aho Hononga | Partnership with mana whenua and Mâori
Aho Whenua | Our places, spaces and venues — our city is alive
Aho Mahi I Successful arts and creative sector, and careers

Transform our transport system to move more people with fewer vehicles

He Mahere Mokowä mö Pöneke I A Spatial Plan for Wellington City

zi

Strategic Priority

These priorities are guided by the following strategies:
We’ll worl‹ with our Tal‹ai here partners, Maori and the community to shape a hveabfe and exciting city that attracts people. A city where people can tive close to nature and streets are made for people, businesses prosper, and communities thrive. Our transport goal is:
We're connected by a world-class transport system, and have attractive and accessible public spaces that support our diverse community and cultural values.

Te Atakura I First to Zero

Enhancing opportunities for active transport throughout Wellington and strongly increase public and active transport use by 2025
Raising the quality, capacity and affordability of public transport across the city
Enhancing development around public transport

Fix our water infrastructure and improve the health of waterways

Collaborate with our communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change

Wellington Water Outcomes
Safe and healthy water - we provide water services, to ensure safe drinl‹ing water and will worl‹ to eliminate the harmful effects of wastewater and stormwater over time.
Respectful of the environment - when we provide water services, we seel‹ to avoid harm to the natural and built environment and over time, enhance it for the benefit of future generations.
Resilient networks support the economy - we provide reliable day-to-day water services, that can withstand shocl‹ and stresses, and future proof the networl‹ to enable a strong regional economy and enhanced natural environment.
Te Atakura I First to Zero
Shaping our plan for a growing city — The community has some big decisions to mal‹e about how Wellington will grow. Growing up, until‹e growing out, will lead to a zero carbon future.
Getting us moving in all the right ways — Developing public and active transport infrastructure for alt directions is an essential element of a zero carbon future. User charges to signal the true cost of driving and to alleviate congestion is the next necessary step to consider.
Becoming a leader in high performing buildings — Whether it's Council buildings or buildings for others, lifting the performance of buildings is essential. The benefits include potentially tower infrastructure costs, cheaper operating costs, healthier environments, and tower carbon impacts.
Giving shared mobility options a lift — For the Council it started with one Cityhop car in 2008, now there are MEVO car share vehicles, scooters, Onzo bil‹es and who l‹nows what's next. Vancouver has 3500 car sharing vehicles helping them get people out from under car ownership's costs.
Building a Wellington climate lab — It's time to IooI‹for scale and transformative change. We will build a climate lab collaborating with partners around the city and country on solutions to develop best practice on emission cuts and adaptation. The focus will be place based.

		

Appendix 5: Impact trend Indicators
The following tables provide the impact indicators across the nine strategic priorities. Strategic Priority	Impact indicator

Trend

Increase access to good, affordable housing improve the wellbeing of our communities

Revitalise the city and suburbs to support a thriving and resilient economy and support job growth

Measured through the WCC State of Housing Dashboard
Residents' perceptions that public areas in their suburb are well designed Residents' perceptions that their local suburb is lively and attractive

lncreasing
lncreasing lncreasing

2023—2029

Progress in achieving —the Wellington Region Waste Management and Minimisation Plan	FlCreasing Reduce the total amount of material that needs final disposal to landfill through:

Transform our waste system to enabte a circular economy

establishing construction and demolition waste processing recovery by 2026
estabtishing organic processing systems by 2029
estabtishing five new resource recovery locations by 2030

Progress

Celebrate and mal‹e visible te ao Mäori across our city

Reduce emissions from biogenic methane by reducing the total amount of organic waste disposed to landfill

Reducing

Increasing

Percentage of council decisions made where Council reports demonstrate strong Mâori perspective

Percentage of councit decisions made where Council reports include input from our Here partners

Increasing

Number of projects and initiatives in the annuat Tûpil‹i Ora worl‹ programme compteted or on tracI‹

Nurture and grow our arts sector

Transform our transport system to move more people with fewer vehicles

Mäori culture and te reo is visible in the city Wellington has a culturatly rich and diverse arts scene
Increasing the proportion of people travelling to the central city using sustainable transport modes (watl‹ing, cycling, micro-mobility and public transport)
Average pay-by-plate parl‹ing occupancy

lncreasing lncreasing
lncreasing

Steady

Central city

l¢etburn

			

			

			

Appendix 6: Outcome trend Indicators
The following tables provide the trend indicators across the five outcomes. It is important to note that the list of indicators wilt develop overtime as new data sets become available.
lndicators for Cultural Outcome: A welcoming. diverse and creative city

Outcome indicator
Percentage of attendees satisfied with Council-delivered festivals and events Percentage of residents agree:

Trend lncreasing
lncreasing

The Council enables local events, activities and cultural activities
I feel wetcome and included in cultural events and activities in Wellington
I see my community reftected in Wellington's culturat activities

People's sense of pride in the area
People's perception of Wellington city (great place to live, worl‹ and play) Residents’ perceptions that heritage items contribute to the city's unique character
Residents’ perceptions that heritage items contribute to the community's unique character
Participation in Mäori culturat activities:

Increasing Decreasing Increasing
Increasing
Increasing

Used Mâori phrases or words in the last 12 months
Watched a Mâori television program in the last 12 months
Sung a Mäori song, performed hal‹a, given a mihi or speech, or tal‹en part in Mäori performing arts or crafts in the last 12 months
Been to a Marae in the last 12months
lndicators for Social Outcome: A city of healthy and thriving whânau and communities
Outcome indicator	Trend
Percentage of residents who have confidence in how WCC holds, uses and manages their private information	Increasing
Youth participation in sport and recreation. 5-17year olds (surveyed on activity within last 7 days)	Increasing
% of residents who believe they have adequate opportunities to participate in city decision-mal‹ing and have their say in Council activities	Increasing NEET rate	 Decreasing
Rental affordability	Increasing

Local government elections voter turnout	Increasing

		

		

		

		

		

		

		

		

		

		

		

		

		

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Wâhanga 2 I Section 2

Rautaki tùähanga
Infrastructure
Strategy

Kei tënei wâhanga
wei tünei wâhanga nei, l‹o ngâ taipitopito whânui mö tö mâtou Rautal‹i Tûâhanga, türâ e noho ana hei tüâpapa I‹i tö mâtou mahere ngahuru tau. ha whai wâhi I‹i tünei, l‹o ngâ möhiohio mö töna whal‹atinanatanga, me te wâhi l‹i a ia i te I‹auneI‹etanga o te tutul‹i haere i â mâtou whâinga mö te tâone

In this section
This section includes the full details of our Infrastructure Strategy that underpins our Long-term Plan. This includes how we will apply it and see progress towards achieving our goals for the city.

	

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Scope ofthe Strategy
Infrastructure is the hardware that enables the delivery of the Council's services and provides for amenity. The Council manages a substantial portfolio of infrastructure assets for the city valued at approximately $10 billion. Approximately two-thirds of these are core horizontal infrastructure assets for the provision of three waters services and transport.
This strategy outlines the Council’s approach to managing and investing in the city's infrastructure including what wilt be required, when, and how much it wilt cost.
lt covers the fotlowing infrastructure types:
Water supply
Sewerage and the treatment and disposal of sewage
Stormwater drainage
Buildings - inctuding civic buitdings, venues and social housing
Land Transport —roads, footpaths, streetlights etc
Waste —tandfilt
Parl‹s and Open Spaces
Community and Recreational Facitities

We have achieved a Not since the last strategy. The Council has undertal‹en a programme of worl‹ to help mal‹e more informed strategic decisions about our infrastructure and investment in our city's future. This includes gaining better l‹nowledge of our infrastructure and the costs associated with achieving the city's growth ambitions set out in the Spatial Plan.
We have achieved the foltowing:
Significant improvements to our asset management approach.
Asset Management Plans now underpinned by high quality data, including for vertical infrastructure where data has been gathered from surveying 372 Council buildings.
Well-developed renewat plans for most classes of assets.
Three Waters Growth Studies to help understand the level of investment needed to support remediation and growth.
Adopted a community facilities plan (Te Awe Mäpara) to help guide the Council's provision and decision-mal‹ing about community facitities for the next 30 years.
Adopted Panel‹e Pônel‹e the bil‹e networl‹ plan and delivery programme.

	Developed the Te Ngâl‹au Frameworl‹ to guide decision mal‹ing for the civic precinct.
Devetoped and adopted a Green Networl‹ Plan to guide the greening of the central city over the next 30 years.
Adopted a new open space and recreation strategy- Te Whai Oranga Ponel‹e, providing an overarching frameworl‹ and strategic direction to manage public open space and recreation programmes and services over the next 30 years.
Completed an open spaces provision assessment and developed a 30-year investment plan.
Initiated a project to develop a federated asset database of all underground assets - refer to Projects - Wellington Underground Asset Map - Wellington City Council assets.
Undertal‹en a housing and building assessment to better understand actual housing and business demand.
Developed an integrated transport/urban development plan which is a l‹ey climate change mitigation response.

Notified a new Proposed District Plan to regulate the city's built environment and open space.

Started Climate Adaptation Planning for the city.
Started Tasl‹ Force Climate Related Financial Disclosures worl‹ to better understand the financial risl‹s associated with climate change for the city.
A number of these worl‹streams have allowed us to obtain and develop better baseline data which will help to guide prudent, timely investment decisions and to strategically manage our infrastructure and community assets. However, there is still some worl‹ to complete to help the Council obtain a better picture, namely in the areas of climate adaptation planning and the financial risl‹s associated with climate change for the city. For further information see Challenge 3: Mitigation and adaptation to climate change on page 532.

The external environment has changed

The repercussions of thèse challenges are evident in their impact on both residents and the Council:
The costs associated with our

Outcomes and
priorities
As with all activities in the LTP, thÎS

Invest in sustainabte, connected, and accessible community facitities.
lncrease access to good,

Covid-19 is now part of our lives and the immediate impacts have passed.

services and ongoing projects have surpassed the initially projected

strategy draws strategic direction	affordable housing to improve the from the outcomes and priorities set	 wellbeing of our communities.

However, other world developments such as the war in Ul‹raine and ongoing supply chain issues has contributed to global inflation and cost of living increases, here and around the world. The experience of Cyclone Gdbrietle in Hawl‹es Bay, Gisborne and Aucl‹land has exacerbated this, and demonstrated the effects of climate change.
This strategy has been developed during a period marl‹ed by

figures in our 2021-31 LTP, mainly due to escalating construction costs resulting from inflationary pressure and scarcity of resources. Mal‹ing additional capital investments in the current marl‹et more costly.
The expense of maintaining the status quo has increased significantly. Lool‹ing after existing assets through the requirement to
account for depreciation, interest,

for the 2024 LTP. The management,
maintenance, renewal, and strategic investment in infrastructure seel‹s to enable the Council to achieve the community outcomes:
A wetcoming, diverse, and creative city.
A city of heatthy and thriving whânau and communities.
An innovative business friendly city.

Revitalise the city and suburbs to support a thriving and resilient economy and support job growth.
Celebrate and mal‹e visible te ao Mäori across our city.
Nurture and grow our arts sector.
We must also embed the strategic approaches in everything we do:
Integrating te ao Mâori.
Mal‹ing our city accessible and

unprecedented demands on the

and insurance, accounted for 49%

A liveable and accessible, compact	inclusive for all.

Council's budget. The heightened cost of living has elevated concerns about the affordability of council

of our rates revenue for 2022. The upl‹eep of ageing assets presents a significant financial burden.

city.
A city restoring and protecting
”atUrE'”

Embedding climate action.
Engaging our community.
Value for money and effective

services among Weltingtonians. The financial pressures faced by the Council stem from the necessity to maintain existing infrastructure and assets, incurring higher costs in an inflationary climate. This financial commitment extends to investments in aging infrastructure such as three waters and earthqual‹e-prone buildings, as well as funding initiatives that contribute to ensuring a high quality of life for alt residents in the future. We are also experiencing a changing insurance marl‹et, higher premiums, less cover and are having to tal‹e on more risl‹.

Households and businesses find it increasingly difficult to absorb cost increases.
The economic landscape has rendered the pursuit of fiscal sustainability and the provision of essential services more challenging for both the Council and the community. Furthermore, the current government has plans to reduce central government costs, which may have implications for the potential of seel‹ing financial support from the government.

There are nine priorities that will alSO	delivery. guide investment decision-mal‹ing:
Fix our water infrastructure and improve the health of waterways.
Transform our waste system to enable a circular economy.
Collaborate with our communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Transform our transport system to move more people with fewer vehictes.

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Challenge 1: Population growth and changing demand
We need to future-ready our infrastructure to serve our growing and changing population, so that we can foster liveable, safe, low- emission neighbourhoods and travel.
Population growth and ageing demographic profile
Wellington has sustained a steady 1.2% population growth per year from 1998 to 2018. The forecast growth rate going forward is tower at 0.8% per year. This wilt still result in between 50 to 80 thousand extra people over the next 30 years and require approximately 24,000-
31.000 more housing units.
Many infrastructure networl‹s require investment to support this forecast growth. The Council is planning to accommodate the growth of the city predominantly through intensification of existing urban areas and along l‹ey public transport corridors as set out in the Spatial Plan and Proposed District Plan.
This wilt require new infrastructure including higher capacity public transport corridors to sustain growth,

and existing infrastructure to be upgraded.
Forecasts indicate steadily ageing population and smaller households as family sizes continue to decline. The population is seeing an increasing proportion of people in the 55-to-85- year age bracl‹ets, and the 20-to-30- year age group.
There is a decreasing proportion of the population in the under 20-year age bracl‹et and the 30 to 50 age group. National population projections from the 2013 disability survey indicated a 45% increase in disabled population to 2038 compared with 31% increase in total population.
The same survey indicated nearly 60% of people over 65 identified as disabled. Changing demographics affects the range of services we need to provide and demands on networl‹s across the city — and long-term changes to household size, more intense and mixed land uses, and accessibility requirements.
Housing and Business Demand

A Housing and Business Needs Assessment (HBA) has recently been completed by the Council. This has been prepared to meet the monitoring requirements of the National Policy Statement for Urban Development (NPS-UD). It also serves as a chapter of a the wider Wairarapa Wellington-Horowhenua

region HBA. The Wellington Regional Leadership Committee (WRLC) wilt use the regional HBA to support spatial and other planning activities for the region, including the Future Development Strategy (FDS).
This report is a snapshot in time and is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that it captures the most current information about the marl‹et. This most recent report has highlighted:
We have enough business land to supply the marl‹et in the medium term (up to 20 years) but beyond this, redevelopment wilt need to occur, or the demand wilt be met elsewhere in the region.
There is higher demand for business ftoorspace and hand resulting from higher growth over the 2019 assessment period, with an identified demand of 597 hectares, or 691 hectares (NPS adjusted), in the next 30 years.
Wellington has a requirement for 30,407 dwellings over the next 30 years.
There are l‹nown infrastructure issues across the city. A long-term investment plan is required to resolve this and untocl‹ the development opportunities across the city. Infrastructure to support growth needs to be prioritised in the Central City, Newtown, Tawa and Johnsonvitle, where the

greatest demand for housing is expected over the medium-long term.
Approximately 60% of the Wellington region's jobs are concentrated in Wellington City with the majority of those located within the city centre which is expected to remain the primary economic hub for the region.
This growth will mean that there wilt be increased pressure on our water and transport networl‹s due to their existing capacity issues.

Lack of capacity in transport and 3 waters systems
Three Waters Capacity
The current infrastructure networl‹s are being stressed with existing demand, the age of the assets and changing weather patterns. This is evidenced by the following.
Significant ftooding
Wet weather wastewater overflows
Wastewater discharges into freshwater and coastal environments
Low water supply pressure and insufficient fire flows
Low water supply storage volumes in reservoirs
Leal‹ing pipes
Water supply fragitity
This is primarily due to the age and poor condition of our water assets which were designed at a time to service a smaller population, tess housing and different weather patterns.
As the city grows, the pressure on our water systems will increase. To handle this growth and meet the required standards, we wilt need to invest more in our water networl‹s. This includes meeting higher environmental standards and preparing for climate change.

Wellington Water Limited monitors

our three waters capacity when resource and subdivision consents and service connection requests come in. They have recently advised the council that in the short-term they wilt still approve service connections for non-complex and smaller scale developments and that in the short term (up to 10 years) networl‹ deficiencies can sometimes be addressed using onsite mitigation solutions such as on-site detention tanl‹s and pumps.
Recent advice received from Wellington Water Limited through the recent Housing and Building Assessment process and the District Plan Hearing Processes have indicated that we have enough capacity in the short term for our three waters networl‹ but wilt face capacity issues in the medium to long-term.
To accommodate future population growth in Wellington City Council area, there will need to be significant upgrades to 3-water infrastructure, with intervention needed to meet growth in the following way.
Central City (in Te Aro, Adelaide Rd), Newtown, Johnsonvilte, Tawa
—immediate and significant intervention to meet short term growth forecasts to create development capacity in the 3- water networl‹s.

Newlands, Mt Cool‹, Mt Vic, Hataitai, Aro Valley, Berhampore, Island Bay, l¢handaltah, Ngaio, Crofton Downs - short term interventions to meet medium- term growth forecasts and create development capacity in the 3- water networl‹s.
l¢arori, l¢etburn, Brool‹tyn, Thorndon, Churton Parl‹, Lyall Bay, l¢itbirnie, Miramar — medium term intervention to create development capacity in the long term.
Greenfields — short to medium term structure planning in place to lead long term outtool‹ for future development led by others.
Transport
Due to our topography, we have limited ability to add or widen corridors for our transport networl‹. We also have a limited amount of east west connections across the city as the city has developed in a north south direction. This tacl‹ of capacity shows up as congestion on the roads and creates safety issues, especially for vulnerable road users.
To maximise the safety and efficiency of our networl‹, as well as increase the provision of safe convenient and reliable tow carbon options, the Council's approach is to reallocate some space away from inefficient private vehicle traffic lanes and parl‹ing to higher capacity public

transport and active mode corridors. The bus networl‹ plays a critical role of moving people around Wellington City, but on many l‹ey corridors' busses share the general traffic lanes and as a result, there are bus infrastructure constraints and pinch points which mal‹e it difficult to increase bus capacity and achieve reliable journey times.
To enable a transport system that is fit for the future, we need to continue our worl‹ to encourage mode shift. In recent times, this has been delivered by the Council's own Bil‹e Networl‹ programme. The Let's Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) programme has been the main mechanism to help deliver on this with the l‹ey enabler being the development of a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in the form of light rail from the railway station to Island Bay. The LGWM programme was a partnership with the Regional Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency Wal‹a l¢otahi.

This programme and partnership has been disestabtished. However, some projects have been moved to the relevant organisation to progress design development and delivery.
The Council will assume responsibility for the Golden Mite Project, the Thorndon Quay Hutt Road Project, some targeted improvements along with an urban revitatisation project in the vicinity of the Basin Reserve. We wilt also be developing a reset of the City Streets programme of bus priority measures and bil‹e networl‹ development in streets to and through the central city, and in the first 3 years progressing priority projects including the second spine along parts of the previously considered MRT route.
The New Zealand Transport Agency Wal‹a I¢otahi are responsible for the delivery of a second Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve upgrade, in

Challenge 2: Ageing and decliningcondition of infrastructure
Assets that have exceeded their useful life
Investment in infrastructure tends to be lumpy. Much of the city's infrastructure was built in waves when parts of the city were

alignment with the Government's expectations.
To deliver the necessary changes in our transport system, considerable investment wilt be required for decades, either through government or some other funding mechanism.
Changing community needs and service use patterns
Infrastructure is intergenerationat. Over time, older infrastructure may not deliver a service to the quality and universality that meet the expectations of our community and its needs into the future. Conversely, service usage patterns change over time resulting in lacl‹ of utilisation of some assets. Wetlingtonians expect high quality and universally accessible services, that are inclusive and support people to thrive.
Community facilities were developed in response to suburb growth and the aspirations of that time. Many
urbanised. A sizeable portion was built after the Second World War and are approaching end of life over the next 30 years.
The three waters networl‹s have a substantial number of assets that have exceeded their expected useful life, and the networl‹ requires significant investment to be fit for purpose. As with many of our assets, our water assets are ageing faster than renewals are occurring. Water

community facilities reflect the way we lived then, when suburbs were tightly defined, and travel was more limited than it is today. As a result, the distribution of facilities is uneven and inequitable across the city.
Lool‹ing forward, we expect that intensification along l‹ey public transport routes wilt occur and will be primarily delivered through apartment and terraced housing units which means people will be living differently and with interact with our infrastructure differently. For example, apartments have limited personal outdoor living areas, so there will be a greater need for shared outdoor public spaces for connection / recreation within communities. The road networl‹ mal‹es up the largest area of public space in the city, and improvements to urban amenity are needed to improve liveability as part of projects which reconfigure the streetscape.

toss from the networl‹ is at approximately 40% which is well above international benchmarl‹s. In high rainfall events stormwater enters the wastewater networl‹ causing overflows which impacts
streams, the marine environment, and tow-tying habitats.
The average age of our community facilities is 58 years. The older age contributes to deteriorating condition, increasing maintenance

As our population gets older, there is a risl‹ of more people feeling socially isolated. To tacl‹le this, it is crucial to create more places where people can connect and socialise, which is important for everyone's wellbeing. Additionally, we are aware that staying active is increasingly important, so we should mal‹e sure there are enough spaces for exercise.
People's preferences and needs are changing, and we should expect a wider variety of activities in our facilities to meet these evolving needs. These evolving needs include mal‹ing sure our facilities are easily accessible, to ensure everyone can use them without difficulty.
Inclusivity is an aspect of this accessibility, so we should aim to have more facilities that are suitable for all genders, cultural identities, and ages. Addressing these aspects is vital for building a community that is healthy, diverse, and welcoming for everyone.
costs, and declining appeal. We have many facilities, and the quality and level of service needs to improve. To afford quality and level of service improvements, we wilt need to tal‹e a strategic portfolio view of what we have and need and mal‹ing some tough decisions in the coming years.
The number of assets, proportion that are nearing the end of their useful life, and the increasing costs of materials and labour is a significant

contributor to rates increases and our ability to replace or upgrade assets.

manageable and whilst there will be some catch up required in the outer

rain and shocl‹s, for example extra-	 days, as well as more drought-bil‹e tropical cyclones. The notable recent	conditions.

The pure volume of infrastructure needing to be renewed is expensive, without the additional affordability issues in the current operating context.
Historical lack of asset management. data maturity and under investment in asset maintenance and renewals
Since the last LTP we have been worl‹ing hard to improve our asset management maturity and data to enable our spend programmes to be more proactive rather than reactive. Our understanding of our assets is improving and the information we have on of some of our assets is becoming clearer.
The need to invest to maintain our assets is a significant cost that all Council's across New Zealand face, and the investment we mal‹e needs to be made at a level that is sustainable to ratepayers. Recent condition

years, with continued improvements in our planning and smart investments, we can find solutions to this challenge.
Challenge 3: Mitigation and adaptation to climate change
Global warming
Globally and locally, the community's expectations are to reduce emissions and contribute to the global need to l‹eep global warming below 1.5%.
Every city must play their part in this challenge. Our city's infrastructure, including transportation and waste systems, plays a l‹ey role in where we tive, how we move around, and the industries we support. However, much of this infrastructure was planned and built before we considered the impact on carbon emissions. To reach our goal of a 57%

example is Cyclone Gabrielle which impacted Northern and Eastern New Zealand in February 2023.
Infrastructure is built up over an extended period to designs which anticipate a certain pattern of use and resilience needs. Our infrastructure design needs are changing as more frequent and impactful weather events and the stresses that come from higher sea levels and our changing climate is emerging.
The national, regional, and local infrastructure our communities rely on are exposed to due to climate change impacts. These impacts are already being seen in the city's most vulnerable environments with issues in drainage and more frequent slips. As a steep coastal city with many of our lifelines and other critical assets situated at or near sea level, the functioning of our city depends on adapting and building resilience to climate change.

As a result of climate change, Wellington is anticipated to experience increased risl‹ from natural hazard events including floods, landslides, storm surge, coastal erosion, and inundation and landslides. These changes could contribute to toss and damage to infrastructure as well as biodiversity tosses, environmental harm, and threats to social, cultural, and economic wellbeing.
Council is undertal‹ing a number of activities to better understand the exposure of infrastructure to climate risl‹ to better understand the risl‹s and needs for investment in climate resilience. The planned Climate Change Risl‹ and Vulnerability Assessment will build on the recently completed qualitative climate risl‹ assessment under the Tasl‹force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures assessment frameworl‹. It will be a quantitative impact assessment of

assessment of alt the Council's vertical infrastructure now provides an opportunity to minimise investment. With this l‹nowtedge we can support financial affordability by

reduction in emissions by 2030 and
achieve net-zero carbon by 2050, we must rethinl‹ and redesign our infrastructure.
Increased frequency and

To understand this risl‹ Council has	 climate change on the Council’s used the NIWA climate change	infrastructure, starting with its most
modelling for the Wellington Region	critical assets aimed at identifying the in our assumptions (Appendix 1 —	 potential financial impacts from
NIWA forecasting assumptions	physical risl‹s.

postponing some maintenance and renewal worl‹ on non-critical assets in

intensity of extreme weather events

). These assumptions predict that Wellington will experience rising sea

Coastal Hazards

the short term and increasing renewal

spending in the outyears. The organisation wilt carry some additional risl‹s to its infrastructure in the short term, but these are

Changes in the climate system are changing the probabilities and patterns of weather events leading to stresses such as prolonged periods of

levels, as well as increases in average	Wellington is a city with low lying
annual temperatures, annual rainfall,	 areas along the coast and steep hills and rainfall intensity, and increases in	 surrounding them. The primary wind intensity and number of windy	Climate impacts revolve around
flooding, coastal erosion, and coastal

zi

inundation due to rising sea levels. Some areas, including parts of the city centre, are projected to be below high tide levels by the end of the century. While hardened shorelines may reduce risl‹s to infrastructure, coastal and intertidat ecosystems and species in developed areas face increased risl‹s due to habitat compression, potentially leading to biodiversity loss. Rocl‹fatls, slips, and landslides are expected to escalate with extreme rainfall events, posing cascading impacts on social and economic welt-being.
The city has areas close to sea level, and during high tides, the sea can btocl‹ the drainage systems. In some tow-tying areas, water can get trapped, especially during high tide. As sea levels rise, this trapping of water is expected to last longer, causing more instances of flooding even on dry days. This can mal‹e it harder for the drainage systems to cope with rain, leading to more flooding in the city. Rising sea levels and more intense rainfall due to climate change mal‹e these flooding risl‹s worse over time.
The coastline of Wellington has been developed with various infrastructure bil‹e seawatls, sewers, and transportation networl‹s. Various parts of the coastline face different challenges. In the inner harbour, there are concerns about the age and condition of seawalts protecting pipes and streets. If these walls fail, it can

affect transportation, pipelines, and may release pollutants into the harbour. On the more exposed and active south coast, erosion and storm events can damage both infrastructure and property.
Wellington's coastal layout mal‹es it susceptible to flooding and erosion. Climate change worsens these risl‹s by increasing sea levels and intensifying rainfall, mal‹ing it important to address these challenges to protect or adapt the city and its infrastructure.
Climate Adaptation Costs The recent report from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change emphasizes the growing complexity and challenges of managing climate change impacts and risl‹s. To protect our city, we recognise the need for strategic planning and investment in both physical changes and adaptive measures.
Climate change is already affecting New Zealand, impacting its natural environment, economy, and communities. Without proactive adaptation, further climate-related changes are expected to significantly impact our infrastructure. Recent weather events underscore the exposure of Wellington's infrastructure to various climate- related impacts, such as extreme weather events, sea level rise,

flooding, coastal inundation, erosion, landslides, and rising temperatures.
Future costs to the Council for mal‹ing infrastructure more resilient will be material. Wellington’s coastal zone is at risl‹ from ongoing sea-level rise and extreme storm tide events. Considerable areas of built-up areas, as well as important transport infrastructure, are exposed to rising seas. At present sea levels, 4084
buildings and 36.2 l‹ms of roads in the Wellington region are exposed to a 1% annual exceedance probability storm-tide event, which rises to 14,336 buildings and 173 l‹ms of roads under 1 metre of sea-level rise and 21,755 buildings and 319 l‹m of roads under 2 metres of sea-level rise.
More community engagement regarding climate adaptation is planned over the next six years with Wellington’s coastal communities, and further worl‹ wilt also be undertal‹en to understand the cost implications on the Council’s own infrastructure networl‹s.
It is crucial to note that current global estimates indicate that the cost of not tal‹ing action to address climate
issues is seven times higher than the cost of safeguarding our current and future infrastructure. Recognising this fact, we must find innovative ways to fund climate resilient infrastructure.

Challenge 4: Earthquake hazards and earthquake prone buildings
Wellington faces a double threat from both earthqual‹es and the effects of climate change. The city is built on shal‹y ground due to its location on an active tectonic boundary, and climate change mal‹es things worse by causing land to sinl‹ and saturating the soil in low-tying areas. This combination increases the til‹elihood and severity of natural disasters in the city.
Landslides
One big concern is landslides. Wellington's hilly terrain has a lot of rocl‹y areas, especially where the city has cut into hillsides for roads and infrastructure. To deal with this, the city has built retaining walls and used other methods to stabilise the land. Landslides occur when the soils are soal‹ed and can no longer hold additional water and self-support the land, causing significant disruption to transportation routes and pipelines. Extreme weather events over recent times have resulted in large number of slips on unsupported land, some of which have been significant, across the city.

Earthquakes
Another major risl‹ is earthqual‹es. Wellington is more at risl‹ of earthqual‹es compared to other cities in New Zealand. The dangers come from tiquefaction (when the ground turns into a liquid-bil‹e state) and ground shal‹ing. To address these risl‹s, the city has set higher standards for building design, established civil defence systems, and uses digital measures to l‹eep important infrastructure data safe outside the city. Resilience to earthqual‹es also involves mal‹ing sure l‹ey services remain accessible and safe.
Because Wellington is a hilly city with many bridges and retaining walls, and limited access points, it is crucial to mal‹e these critical linl‹s resilient. This means ensuring they can withstand the impact of earthqual‹es and other natural disasters, so people can continue to access essential services and stay safe.
Earthquake prone buildings
In November 2016, we experienced a moderate earthqual‹e that tested our city. It responded well, but there is more worl‹ to do to improve the city's resilience. To be a seismicalty resilient city, much of our infrastructure needs to be remediated, particularly buildings and facilities. Seismic resilience is also about ensuring safety and access to life supporting services.

Shifting central government guidelines has meant that buildings that were once up to code, over time no longer meet the required standards. Most recently, the Earthqual‹e-prone Buildings Amendment Act 2016 introduced major changes to the way earthqual‹e-prone buildings are identified and managed under the Building Act.
Many of the Council's buildings are not earthqual‹e-prone, but some are, and require remediation. This includes a number of l‹ey public use buildings such as the Town Halt, the Central Library, Te Ngâl‹au Basement, the Opera House, the Michael Fowler Centre, the Bond Store, as well as community facilities such as pools, libraries, community centres and recreation centres.
Challenge 5: Affordability and deliverability
Funding Tools
Local Government in New Zealand has a narrow range of funding tools available for funding infrastructure investments than other local government authorities around the world. Specialist tools that are available to Local Government such as Development Contributions or Financial Contributions are more easily deployed in greenfield

(undeveloped land) developments rather than through brownfietd developments. A recalibration of Councils approach and policies is essential for the 2024 Long Term Plan (LTP) to better capture growth requirements so that costs for growth can be recouped by those that generate the demand. Property identifying growth as a component in our renewals program is crucial for adequately funding growth projects and avoiding difficulties in delivering them. This will be part of our improvement programme to better capture growth for development contributions in the 2027 LTP.
The wider systemic issues of Local Government funding remains a l‹ey issue. Local Government is continuing conversations with central govern to address this for the future.
High inflation putting pressure on construction costs
The costs associated with maintaining, operating, renewing, and upgrading infrastructure are substantial and have been increasing materially since the Covid-19 pandemic. This increase has been significantly more than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) that most households face.

Funding tools are limited, and white the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act (IFF) provides an ‘off balance sheet’ solution whereby our debt to revenue ratio limit is not

impacted by additional investment, the costs still fall to the community who themselves have affordability issues, particularly in this cost-of- living crisis. A greater range of funding tools has been a perennial request from the local government sector to central government to deal with this challenge. The Future for Local Government report has identified this as a priority area for central government to lool‹ at.
Constrained capacity ofthe market to deliver
Despite an increased capital programme, the marl‹et’s capacity to deliver remains a concern. In recent years, the Council increased the capital programme, but deliverability has averaged 70-80 percent. In 2022, Civil Contractors New Zealand reported that the civil construction industry face major challenges including greater certainty for future projects, attracting, and retaining sl‹ilted people, cost escalations, and supply chain issues.
The impact of extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle have compounded the scarcity of construction resource, and costs are expected to be further impacted by tow supply as worl‹ers are required to address the East Coast rebuild.
Planning for a better long-term pipeline of expected infrastructure worl‹ wilt help the marl‹et to build capacity to deliver over time. Phasing

of the capital programme to align it with our financial constraints provides a more sustainable and steady pipeline of worl‹.
Regarding buildings, potential capacity pressure wilt occur as private building owners seel‹ contractors for remediation of their earthqual‹e- prone buildings. There are 571 earthqual‹e prone buildings in the city, with many needing to be completed between 2027 and 2030. This number continues to change as requirements change and investigations are undertal‹en. The high concentration of strengthening needs in a short period of time places pressure on the construction sector and increases costs to building owners including ourselves. they parts of the City Centre wilt become extended worl‹sites and wilt need to be managed to ensure suitable access for residents and business. This disruption wilt also impact the vibrancy of the inner city.
Increasing insurance costs
The heightened exposure our city has to earthqual‹e and climate related risl‹ has led to steep increases in insurance costs, and the availability of cover has reduced. More broadly, due to the increasing frequency of extreme weather events here and overseas, the insurance sector is increasingly placing the costs where the risl‹s lie, and this means the cost of insurance will continue to increase and the

availability of cover wilt continue to reduce over time.
Public entities in Wellington and Christchurch currently pay higher premiums than other parts of the country due to the elevated risl‹s of earthqual‹e occurrence and future volatilities relating to climate change. While we have increased our fees and rates to accommodate some of this increase, we have also developed a risl‹ and insurance strategy, considering limitations imposed by the insurance marl‹et and the natural hazards specific to the city. The strategy justifies the Council accepting an increased level of risl‹ by no longer insuring our assets to the same level of cover as we have done in past years. The Council is also worl‹ing on an insurance roadmap which outlines the worl‹ program for getting to the best risl‹ position possible given the constraints from the insurance marl‹et and the natural hazard risl‹s that impact the city.
We have insurance for natural hazard- related events on most of our infrastructure. Our assets are insured on a probable maximum loss basis for a 1-in-a-1000-year event. This means that we do not insure at a level to replace 100 percent of our assets, as there is a low level of risl‹ that alt assets would simultaneously be affected by a hazard event. We also have a self-insurance fund for below- excess claims.

When we are considering the level of acceptable debt relative to our limits, we are now careful to factor in a level of debt headroom needed for uninsured assets in the case of a significant hazard event. This elevated level of risl‹ prompts a need for efficient management of infrastructure. Refer also to the Council's financial strategy.

Prioritise growth areas
Wellington’s growth relies on investment in infrastructure that adapts to the changing population needs, location and expectations. Our guiding document is the Spatial Plan — Our City Tomorrow, adopted by the Council in 2021, which sets out an action plan for where and how Wellington City should grow and develop over the next 30 years. It projects a population increase of between 50.000 - 80,000 for Wellington City - requiring 24,000- 31,000 more residential dwellings over the 30-year period. Most of this growth will occur by intensifying existing urban areas and along l‹ey public transport routes.
The l‹ey challenge ties in phasing investment to support growth and a well-functioning urban form. The Spatial Plan recognises the need to coordinate land use planning and infrastructure provision to deliver good cost-effective and affordable growth outcomes.
It also recognises the substantial scale of infrastructure investment required to address current networl‹ issues and support growth. The spatial plan identifies priorities over the next 10-20-30 years for major infrastructure investment focus to unlocl‹ the capacity of growth areas for new development. Tawa, Johnsonvitle, Central City (including Te Aro and Adelaide Road) and

Newtown were identified as priority growth areas over the short to medium term (within the next 10 years) because:
They are captured by National Policy Statement on Urban Development intensification requirements.
The areas could mal‹e a significant contribution to growth enablement and housing capacity.
They have strong existing public transport, other services, and amenities, especially for three waters and transport.
The remaining investment to support growth can be made in this order however this can be flexible subject to where the demand is for growth, as per the chart below, subject to any upzoning decisions that may be made through the District Plan.

0g

This approach guides decisions, even in our renewals programme, ensuring targeted investment aligned with our strategic city goals. Growth studies in our priority growth areas have allowed us to quantify the cost of growth, primarily in our three waters networl‹.
This LTP is focused on mal‹ing the existing water networl‹ more resilient. Growth will be a small component of renewals in delivering that resilience. More detailed growth planning in our priority growth areas will commence next Financial Year. This wilt produce more specific projects that wilt begin to appear in the next LTP to strengthen our three waters networl‹s and enable growth.
Climate change
response
Our approach to climate change involves not only addressing resilience challenges but also mal‹ing strategic investments in infrastructure to reduce emissions.
The impact of climate change is already evident in our transport networl‹, where stormwater management plays a crucial role in our response. A l‹ey focus is on the transport system, as it is the primary contributor to our city's emissions, presenting a significant opportunity for emissions reduction and

contributing to global efforts to limit warming.
Recognising the complexity of factors such as marl‹et capacity, funding constraints, and emission reduction requirements, we are committed to a strategic approach to renewals and infrastructure investment. Our goal is to be efficient and effective in finding low- carbon solutions that enhance resilience. Not only are these solutions environmentally friendly, but they are also cost-effective.
To achieve this, we are using tools bil‹e Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) and strategic impact assessments. These tools help us better understand and manage the climate-related aspects of our projects. The goal is to mal‹e sure that these sustainable infrastructure principles and tools are consistently applied across alt council projects. This way, our decision- mal‹ing processes for infrastructure development will be consistent and in line with our commitment to sustainability. To achieve this, we continue to improve our infrastructure planning and delivery in a collaborative and coordinated way across multiple disciplines including transport, housing, and water. We are aiming for an integrated, reliable networl‹, emphasising green infrastructure to address natural hazards.

We have identified two pathways for addressing the challenges of adapting to and mitigating climate change.
Targeting emissions reductions to the achieve the greatest gains and operational efficiencies.
Growing our understanding of climate adaptation impacts and cOsts.
The rationale for these options are outlined below.
Target emissions reductions for the greatest gains and operational efficiency
In 2019, Wellington City Council declared a climate and ecological emergency, leading to the adoption of Te Atal‹ura — First to Zero as our climate action strategy. Te Atal‹ura focuses on three main objectives:
Reducing the city's emissions to net zero by 2050, with substantial cuts before 2030.
Achieving net-zero emissions for the Council itself by 2050.
Enhancing Wellington's overall resilience.
Our city's target is a 57% reduction in 2020 emissions by 2030, reflecting the urgency of action. The Council is also aiming for a 57% reduction in its own emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.

Considerable progress has been made, with a 10% reduction in city emissions since 2020 and a 44% reduction in the Council's emissions since the 2021 financial year.
The Council's Emission Reduction Plan (ERP) focuses on decarbonising assets through electrification, efficient landfill management, removal of fossil gas from buildings, and transitioning the vehicle fleet to electric alternatives. These actions are not just present-day investments but contributions to a sustainable future.
In trying to achieve these objectives the principal options are:
Complete the lowest cost actions first.
Focus on a few targeted actions that will achieve the greatest impact and operational cost efficiency.

While progress is underway, additional substantial emissions reductions are crucial to staying well below a 1.5 degree warming scenario. Immediate cuts are more impactfut, emphasizing the urgency of our efforts. Reducing emissions at the organisational, city, national, and global levels is essential to prevent a world where the impacts of climate change outpace our adaptive capabilities, particularly beyond 1.5 degrees of warming. The Council acl‹nowledges the significance of its

emissions, particularly from landfills and certain facilities, and is actively worl‹ing towards addressing these challenges, electrifying its fleet, and exploring alternatives for gas-heated pools. Degasification of the pools will contribute significantly to the emissions reductions target. In many cases investments in these climate mitigation measures wilt result in reduced operational costs as well.
Our commitment remains firm — to reduce emissions for a sustainable and resilient future.
Grow our understanding of climate impacts and adaptation costs
Natural hazards already pose risl‹s to our infrastructure, and climate change is expected to amplify the frequency and intensity of these events across the city. The physical risl‹s from climate change may not only affect existing infrastructure in the next 30 years but are lil‹ety to increase over the longer term.

Due to the lifespan of carbon emissions in the atmosphere, many changes are irreversible. Therefore, it is important to support the city to adapt to the impacts of climate change, due to the long lifetime of infrastructure and assets (50 years or more), high upfront costs and limited flexibility. Understanding climate

risl‹s and embedding resilience from the outset is critical to ensuring assets meet their objectives in terms of serviceability, financial return and social outcomes.
We base our planning for climate change on modelling by NIWA for the Wellington Region, which predicts rising sea levels, increased average annual temperatures, rainfall, rainfall intensity, wind intensity, windy days, and drought-bil‹e conditions. This anticipates heightened risl‹s from floods, landslides, storm surge, coastal erosion, and inundation, potentially causing loss and damage to infrastructure, biodiversity, and threatening social, cultural, and economic well-being.
While worl‹ is underway to better understand our climate change risl‹ exposure, we do not currently have a complete understanding of the asset- level risl‹s and options for adapting our infrastructure to climate change. Therefore, our principal option is to focus on gaining a systematic quantitative understanding of the localised impacts and developing adaptation plans anticipated in the next 30-100 years. Council has undertal‹en the first step having recently completed the 2023 Climate Risl‹ Assessment Report (risl‹ screening and qualitative
assessment) and has led the development of the Wellington

Regional Climate Change Impact Assessment.
These reports indicate that our climate change risl‹ profile highlights that Wellington is lil‹ely to face increased exposure to various impacts, including coastal inundation affecting water, drainage, waste assets, Council buildings, parl‹s, reserves, and road assets, especially those in tow-tying areas.

We are conducting a climate risl‹ assessment of critical public infrastructure in Wellington and developing an adaptation plan for Council-owned assets, enabling us to plan for climate adaptation costs alongside future asset renewal cycles. It is crucial to acl‹nowledge that adaptation costs will rise significantly over time, particularly if emission reduction targets are not met. Our commitment is to adapt and evolve, ensuring the resilience of Wellington in the face of a changing climate.

WC6s climats risk profite across ils three risk areas, over time and under each sænario

Present dny	2050, RCP 4 5

2050,RCP8S

Risk Scoi c

Z100, RCP 4 5

2 100. RCP 8.5

To increase the climate resilience of our assets and infrastructure we wilt
(a) reduce the vulnerability of existing assets and (b) ensure new infrastructure is fit for a changing climate by embedding climate

processes, guidelines and digital tools to support Council reduce climate risl‹s and mal‹e climate- resilient decisions in asset management investments, renewals or upgrades decision-

Carry out strategic rationalisation to better manage the overall asset portfolio

manage the overall asset portfolio. This means ensuring we have the right assets to meet the needs of the community before investing in renewals, upgrades or new. It also means considering selling or

change adaptation and resilience into our future planning by:
2024 - develop a climate adaptation frameworl‹ to embed climate risl‹ management and adaptation planning into Council’s new asset and infrastructure management frameworl‹ and processes.

2025 — undertal‹e quantitative climate risl‹ assessments for Council's assets; and develop

mal‹ing processes.	Broad options for addressing alt the
2026 — devetop the Council’s first	Challengesinctude:
Climate Adaptation Plan that WÎÎÎ	 Continue to mal‹e decisions as inctude asset and infrastructure.		issues arise and add new assets
when existing ones no longer meet requirements.
Ensure we are more strategic in the management of the of the portfolios of assets we own.
The principal option we have chosen is: Strategic rationalisation to better

decommissioning some assets. Our rationale is provided below.
We cannot afford to continue maintaining, operating, and renewing all our assets we have in the way that we have been doing. Adding more assets without considering affordability is also not sustainable. Therefore, we must pause and reset. This means tal‹ing a careful tool‹ at alt our assets and conducting strategic reviews. These reviews should be

done by tool‹ing at portfolios of assets, considering the bigger picture. We must also tal‹e the time to ensure our investments are financially sustainable and contributing towards our community outcomes and LTP priorities.
To address these challenges, we need to be coordinated and considered at a whole of organisation and city level. Recently, the council adopted Te Awe Mapara (Community Facilities Plan), a guide for decision- mal‹ing on community facilities for the next 30 years. This plan is based on a city-wide needs analysis that highlighted issues with the current networl‹ of facilities.
hey challenges include:
Many of our community facilities are smafl, ageing, not fit-for- purpose, and many face increased or new risl‹s associated with climate change and naturat hazards.
While the city is well-covered geographicatly, the design, size and quatity of facitities hinder our abitity to meet current and future needs as the city grows.

We have already reviewed our performance venues, focusing on the operational model. The l‹ey finding of the report is the Wellington City Council (WCC) operating model for the performing arts venues is sub- optimal and it is not set-up for success. The model in its current form tacl‹s alignment, transparency, and accountability in relation to how civic performance venues contribute to agreed WCC strategies and objectives. There is a significant opportunity to shift to a more effective operating model. In addition, there is a significant overlap between performance venues, civic venues, and civic buildings. It mal‹es sense to review this portfolio of building assets together. A feasibility study will tal‹e place over the first 3 years of this LTP to identify options to optimise the operation of this portfolio.
This strategic rationalisation approach is essential for managing our assets efficiently, ensuring financial sustainability and ensuring they align with the city's future needs.
The way we manage our assets must

Knowledge Management
The foundations for good Asset Management (AM) practices are people, processes, systems, and data, as defined in the International Infrastructure Management Manual (IIMM). Quality asset data provides the evidence to enable better investment decision mal‹ing and cross asset optimisation.
Asset data is generally collected through data capture programmes, or operationally through our service providers and asset managers and their teams. At WCC, data is captured through our facilities management provider, through ongoing assessments by inhouse specialised staff, as well as large scale condition assessment programmes, as has just been completed for our vertical asset portfolios.
AM information sets and the systems where they are stored are summarised in the table below. Refer to each AMP (Asset Management Plans) for the complete list of systems specific for each of the activities.

Te Awe Mäpara outlines 58 prioritised actions for investigations and planning over the next 30 years, with 26 of thèse to be compteted in the first six years of this LTP.

tal‹e this strategic approach. Further detail about managing, maintaining and renewing our assets follows.

						

						

						

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	62

						

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	63

Data confidence grades Confidence in our asset data
improves the confidence in our investment decision mal‹ing,
enabling effective programmes and robust long-term financial forecasts to be developed. Our confidence ratings are based on the criteria outlined below.

Asset condition is one the of l‹ey factors we employ in the development and prioritisation of our programmes of worl‹. Having accuracy and confidence in our condition data is therefore vital to be able to assess and manage the assets in an effective manner.
The current state of our infrastructure assets is summarised in the individual Asset Management Plans (AMPs). The condition scoring regime we use is a standard 1 to 5 scale, 1 being Very Good condition and 5 being Very Poor.

Confidence Grade
A Very High

B High

C Medium

D Low

E Very Low

Grade Description
Highly Reliable <2% uncertainty
Data based on sound records, procedure, investigations, and analysis, documented properly, and recognised as the best method of assessment.

Reliable ± 2-10% uncertainty
Data based on sound records, procedures, investigations, and analysis, documented properly but has minor shortcomings, for example the data is old, some documentation is missing, and reliance is placed on unconfirmed reports or some extrapolation.
Reasonably Reliable ± 10-25% uncertainty
Data based on sound records, procedures, investigations, and analysis which is properly documented but has minor shortcomings for example the data is old, some documentation is missing, and reliance is placed on unconfirmed reports or significant extrapolation.
Uncertain ± 25-50% uncertainty
Data based on sound records, procedures, investigations, and analysis which is incomplete or unsupported, or extrapolated from a limited sample for which grade A or B is available.
Very Uncertain > 50% uncertainty
Data based on unconfirmed verbal reports and/or cursory inspection and analysis.

Condition Rating Scale

Condition Grade Index Scale

Condition Score	Colour	Condition Rating	
1		Very Good	
2		Good	
3	Yellow	Fair	
4	Orange	Poor	
5		Ve y Poo	

CGI Range	Colour	Condition	Description
	Rating	

will enable more certainty for people planning, building, maintaining and operating infrastructure in the city

The Condition Grade Index (CGI) is the average condition grade of assessed components weighted by their gross replacement cost. This index is used to summarise and monitor overall condition for our assets managed in the SPM information system which excludes Transport. The CGI operates on a different scale to the condition rating which needs to be considered when using for decision mal‹ing purposes.

0-1.499	Good

1.5-1.99	Yellow	Fair

3-5

Very Poor	Majority of components are in a poorer condition.

2-2.99	Orange	Poor

Changing Technology
Technology plays an important role in how we use and build things bil‹e roads and buildings. Thanl‹s to technology, people can now tive, worl‹, and have fun in diverse ways. The adoption of technologies has allowed for more flexibility about when and where people live, worl‹, and recreate. The trend towards hybrid worl‹ing and learning was accelerated during the pandemic and has led to changing patterns of movement and demand which impacts how infrastructure networl‹s perform. Developments in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Telecommunications Connectivity and Reality Technologies will continue to enable people to easily change how they tive. This in turn affects what we need from our

A CGI of less than 1.5 suggests that an excellent condition without any component in poorer condition.
Less than 2.0 it is til‹ely that the site is in good to excellent with only a few components in a poorer condition.
Greater than 2.5, there is a high proportion of components in a poor condition.

infrastructure networl‹s. Technology also impacts how infrastructure is planned, built, and operated.
We now use things bil‹e Digital Twins, Mapping Technology and the Internet of Things which enable the modelling, visualisation, optimisation, and prediction of how infrastructure, has and wilt perform. This investment in technology can increase the resilience, adaptability, and certainty of performance of infrastructure through time and enable it to better meet the strategic outcomes of the city. The Council is presently investing in an Underground Asset Map which wilt provide more reliable, accurate and complete data about the location of underground services. This map of the underground space in the city

and is foundational to improving the administration of the space within the city's streets and public spaces.
Maintaining existing assets
We manage our assets through a mix of reactive and proactive investment as we set out to worl‹ under a ’lowest whole of life’ frameworl‹. This will always be based on our asset data and as the maturity of our asset management progresses, we wilt achieve better outcomes with our investment. Organisation maturity combined with better decision mal‹ing will deliver better outcomes.
\mprovement of our asset data has been a focus leading up to the current LTP. We are now more confident of the integrity of our asset data across many of the asset groups and this provides a solid foundation for the current LTP. Maintaining what we have is not always the right thing to do. Maintenance investment is considered in relation to the renewals programme to optimise both intervention timing and level of service across the assets. When the operational and maintenance costs of retaining an asset are equivalent to building new, this may be an indication to dispose of the asset and build a new one that meets the community needs.

Renewals
Our approach to asset renewals is centred on progressively restoring and renewing individual assets that have reached the end of their useful life. The goal is to bring these assets bacl‹ to their original condition or capacity, ensuring they meet required levels of service. However, before a decision is made to renew any assets, we determine if the asset is still required and if so, if a lil‹e for bil‹e replacement is required or an upgrade.
Our capital investments cover three investment streams:
Renewing existing assets: Preventing assets from failing to support levels of service by systematically renewing them.
Upgrade, creation, or purchase of new assets: Addressing growth in demand or changes to levels of service by investing in new assets.
Investment in assets that are held for financial return or future opportunity value: Investing in assets that provide a financial return or have potential future value.
Renewal and replacement strategies are determined based on:
Risl‹ — Action is justified if there is a risl‹ of failure and associated safety, financial and commercial effects.

	Asset Performance — renewal is necessary if the asset fails to meet the required levels of service and compliance.
Economics — Renewal is considered when it is no longer financially sensible to continue to repair the asset.
Renewal and replacement needs are identified through:
Analysing condition reports
Maintenance records (asset failure
and expenditure history)
Service records
Observations by staff and
contractors
The unconstrained short and long- term asset renewal programmes are prepared based on identified forecasted renewal needs, considering remaining asset lives criticality and risl‹. Deferred capital renewals wilt be planned for future inclusion in programmes.
Renewals investment is prioritised to balance levels of service and lowest cost of life for asset groups, aligned with resilience and strategic goals such as mode shift and emissions targets. We then apply the affordability lens tal‹ing into account the quantum of required investment across Council activities. Decisions are complex across the Council’s infrastructure due to varying asset lives requiring coordination for

optimisation of investment, where the level of investment for renewals is balanced with affordability, asset consumption and the Council’s levels of service. Given debt capacity issues in the development of the 2024 Long-term Plan a decision has been tal‹en to target renewals at 75% of unconstrained forecasts for ten years of the LTP.
Prioritising renewals funding enables the Council to trade off non-critical asset risl‹ with the need to increase investment in our three waters assets. An increased budget from 2034 wilt be programmed to catch up — the intent being that this deferrat of renewal funding and spending would be fully caught up over the life of the 30-year Infrastructure Strategy and therefore the risl‹s and service impacts of the decision should be temporary. Within this financial constraint, we wilt ensure that within different activity classes, renewals are prioritised based on criticality and where assets are in the poorest condition.
This decision applies to alt renewal budgets other than three waters renewals, which have been subject to specific decision mal‹ing through the 2024 LTP. Note that where there is data and information that does not support this target, separate decisions were tal‹en (most notably for transport renewals).

Funding renewals later than forecast replacement requirements creates risl‹s to asset condition and performance. The management of renewal budgets may also lead to impacts to service levels delivered to the community. Overall, the Council plans to manage risl‹ through ensuring that within different activity classes, renewals are prioritised based on criticality and where assets are in the poorest condition. Safety and resilience will also be prioritised. In some cases, this has meant that renewal budgets for some activities have not been reduced the full 75% of forecasts.

Where less than 100% of renewals are budgeted it is imperative that this risl‹ is well understood and signalled in terms of asset consumption, and

prone buildings, as well as how we adapt to climate change impacts.

Prioritising the

The overall approach to prudently managing our financial position for the 2024 LTP is outlined:
Reprioritise and rephase the

that it is evenly distributed over the following ten years of the long-term plan and beyond and fits within the available budget

service decline. Where infrastructure

interventions and work	capital programme as follows:

parameters.

has been funded sub-optimally, we will identify any efficiencies that can be sought to reduce costs (that is, doing more for tess) as well as monitoring the bacl‹log ensuring our plans include a focus on lowering risl‹s in subsequent years. The Council has, where practicable, constrained renewals and assumed some risl‹ across sections of our infrastructure (predominantly transport, buildings, and facilities) with the l‹nowtedge
and data to support this risl‹ by identifying renewal bacl‹log and forecasting this into later years 2034
—2054, where any degradation is addressed.
This information and l‹nowledge is available through the recent implementation of our Asset Management Information System (SPM) and a comprehensive condition assessment survey for our buildings.
This approach, in deferring renewals to some of our infrastructure means we are consciously prioritising our investment to meet our biggest challenge within a constrained funding environment. The highest priority infrastructure investment over the next decade is required to support repair and remediation of the City's water networl‹ and earthqual‹e

programme for affordability
New infrastructure is expensive. To manage and operate our assets in a financially sustainable way, as well and delivering to meet the needs of our communities, growth, and climate change, we need to tal‹e a strategic and integrated approach. We are applying the hierarchy of interventions, as described in the New Zealand Transport Agency's Planning and Investment Guidance and in alignment with the Infrastructure Commission, considering tower cost interventions before higher cost interventions. This includes:
Integrated land use and infrastructure planning.
Manage demand through behavioural science techniques such as pricing, redesigning services, and using technology.
Mal‹ing best use of existing infrastructure by optimising levels of service.
Using best practice business cases and planning and prioritising to inform good decision mal‹ing when investing in infrastructure.

	Complete worl‹s underway — examples include things lil‹e the Town Hall, Te Matapihi Central Library, parl‹ing enforcement technology roll- out etc.
Deliver what is tegistatively / contractually required — examples include Housing Upgrade Programme phase 2, multi-year contracts, earthqual‹e strengthening, delivery of the Te Awe Mapara Community Facilities Networl‹ Plan which has now been adopted.
Infrastructure deficit / challenge — invest in areas where there are significant infrastructure challenges, such as three waters and transport.
Incorporate regulatory and non-built solutions —invest in policy frameworl‹s and nature- based solutions such as water sensitive urban design to limit the need for infrastructure investment.
Reprioritise and rephase — rephase, reprioritise and rescope the remainder of the capital worl‹s programme so

Maintain financial capacity for the future:
Investment portfolio — explore whether the current investment portfolio can be better utilised and targeted towards dealing with the city's natural hazard risl‹s and insurance costs pressures.
Renewals — update renewal programmes to reflect better asset data that has been developed and defer what we can on non-critical assets, without impacting too severely on asset risl‹. We have set a target of funding renewals at 75% of the anticipated need, in all asset categories except 3 waters. This will occur for the first 10 years (2024-2034) and enable us to trade off non- critical asset risl‹ with the need to increase investment in our 3 waters assets. An increased budget from 2034 wilt be programmed to catch up. Within this financial constraint, we wilt ensure that within different activity classes, renewals are prioritised based on criticality and where assets are in the poorest condition.

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	68

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	69

five other councils in the region (Hutt City, Porirua City, Upper Hutt City, South Wairarapa District, and Greater Wellington Regional Council). It is contracted under a collective Management Services Agreement which requires it to, amongst other things, safeguard the Councils' water assets from damage, loss and destruction and l‹eep the assets in good condition and repair.
The repeat of the Three Waters Legislation reverts to council ownership and control of water assets, with increased environmental regulation around discharges.
Existing arrangements wilt be retained for the 2024 LTP and associated planning documents. That is, the Council will continue to own three water assets and fund the service. Wellington Water Limited will continue to plan and manage the networl‹ as well as deliver the service on behalf of the shareholding Councils.
Wellington Water is governed by a Board of independent directors, the chair of which reports to the Wellington Water Committee. The Wellington Water Committee is made up of representatives from each of the shareholding Councils and is responsible for providing overall leadership and direction for Wellington Water.

Wellington Water use these five regional strategic priorities to provide advice.
Lool‹ after existing infrastructure.
Support a growing population.
Sustainable water supply and demand (and more resilience in times of shortage).
\mproving environmental water quality.
Achieving net zero carbon emissions.
Wellington Water's advice in the 2024 — 2027 LTP was to investment primarily in ‘Lool‹ing after existing infrastructure’, sustainable water supply and demand, and ‘improving environmental water quality’.
Wellington Water Limited is accountable for all asset management activities, including asset condition assessment, on behalf of WCC. The focus, until recently, has been on understanding where critical pipes are within the networl‹. An increasing bacl‹tog of teal‹s is leading to declining levels of service and the need to increase funding for reactive interventions. A better use of our constrained funding would be to invest in renewals which requires ana optimised renewals programme, improving resilience, managing critical assets and improving asset data l‹nowtedge are

all important aspects of maintaining our networl‹.
Whilst the asset management and planning function continues to improve, some significant data gaps still exist, and these are s highlighted below.
During the last 3 years, Wellington Water Limited completed an assessment of Very High Critical Assets (VHCA) across our 3 waters networl‹ and provided investment advice as part of the 2024-34 LTP. VHCA are assets that have a very high consequence if they fail. It is important after an unexpected event that VHCA and high criticality assets (HCAs) are bacl‹ up and running as soon as possible to maintain public health and safety.
Wellington Water assessed the below:
189l‹m which is about 8% of total pipes.
65 or 100% of the reservoirs.
35 or 28% of the pump stations.
60 wastewater treatment plant assets were selected for detailed investigation.
The asset assessment informs Wellington Water's physical worl‹s programme. The biggest risl‹s are assets in poor or very poor condition, and these will be prioritised for replacement. Wellington Water uses

modelling to determine asset condition grades for the wastewater and drinl‹ing water networl‹s. Asset condition modelling considers factors bil‹e pipe age, material, expected lifespan and pipe inspection records.
The asset assessment informs Wellington Water's advised physical worl‹s programme. The biggest risl‹s are assets in poor or very poor condition (44% of the capital’s wastewater pipes and 25% of drinl‹ing water pipes), which will be prioritised for replacement.
Reservoirs also need remedial worl‹s for safety and contamination risl‹s.
The three waters assets are discussed separately below:
Water Supply (butl‹ drinl‹ing water)
Sewerage and the treatment and disposal of wastewater
Stormwater
Delivering through Wellington
Water Limited
As mentioned above, the Council's water services are delivered through Wellington Water Limited.
We've recently independently reviewed the service delivery efficiency of Wellington Water. There are a number of recommendations to improve service delivery.
Shareholding councils have agreed to pursue operational improvements

		

through the inclusion of performance and productivity based l¢Pls into the 2024 Letter of Expectations.
Wellington Water Limited has advised that the maximum deliverable programme would cost
$2.5b, of which $1.8b is Capex and the balance is Opex. We're proposing to fund $1.8b (capex and opex) over 10 years, which is what Wellington City Council can afford. The waters programme is designed around the budget and what is most critical to deliver.
Several of the major projects are in a very early stage of planning, which means there is a high level of cost uncertainty. Wellington Water Limited will tal‹e a tactical approach to delivering the spend through balancing and prioritising its investment, targeting specific assets and speed of ramping up. they considerations in this are expected to be both Wellington Water's and marl‹et capacity to deliver as well as asset risl‹ of failure and affordability.
The following have been prioritised. Opex costs
$680.Om over ten years, with year
1 at $66m. Including:
$2.4m for planning for universal water meters in first three years
$5.3m Opex pa for leal‹ / reactive maintenance

Note, the ongoing consequential opex requirement for the universal residential smart water meters will be determined through the planning, design and procurement phase. Once this is complete, council can mal‹e an informed decision on how to incorporate the ongoing costs into future opex. budgets.
Capex costs
$1.2b over ten years, including:
$143m for smart water meter roll out from year 4.
$23.1m for Golden Mite Renewals
$10.8m to start Belt Road and Moi-i-te-Ra reservoirs including inlet/outlet mains from year 7
$32.8m for pressure management and additional water renewals, and increased reactive renewals for alt three waters
$24.2m for risl‹ contingency for the Airport Wastewater Triplicate lnterceptor and one section of the Eastern Trunl‹ Main
$15m for additional renewals at the Moa Point Wastewater Treatment Plant
$2.8 mitlion in the CAPEX program for wastewater upgrades for a trunl‹ sewer in the l¢aiwharawhara stream in Ötari-Witton’s Bush.

Funding Options
The overall budget options for the 3 Waters are provided in the table below. hey points to note:
The starting budget given to WWL to worl‹ with is Option 1, which was based on the 2023/24 financial year. This proved to be unrealistic and would result in continued failures.
Option 2 tool‹ a focus on ensuring enough funding to manage reactive maintenance. This was strongly considered, but ultimately the Council decided that more investment was needed, and this would mean reducing funding from other areas of the organisation.
Option 3 is the adopted approach, as it is the most affordable pacl‹age that starts to see an improvement in the 3 Waters service.
However, there wilt continue to be difficult decisions over the 30-year span of this strategy. The activity wilt continue to be constrained as the funding model does not have sufficient capacity to appropriately manage the provision of these services. A review into the operating model and discussions with central government wilt occur in the coming triennium.

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73

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council

Water Supply Renewals
45,000,000
40,000,000
35,000,000
30,000,000
25,000,000
20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
0

$

Key challenges
This activity group is affected by alt the identified l‹ey challenges.
Aging and declining condition of infrastructure — Around 30% of the drinl‹ing water networl‹ has passed or are approaching the end of life based on age. Using age as a proxy for condition, Wellington Water Limited has advised that more than 50% of the networl‹ is expected to require replacement within the next 30 years.

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Population growth and changing demand — Forecast growth in our northern suburbs (Johnsonvilte and Tawa in particular) wilt put additional demand on the existing water storage reservoirs. Growth studiesl undertal‹en by Wellington Water Limited since the last LTP have been completed, which has helped to identify what worl‹ is needed to support our 30-year growth vision and to help quantify the level of investment required for this growth. Capacity is available in the short term for non- complex and smaller scale developments. However, significant upgrades to networl‹

1 Undertal‹en for Tawa, Johnsonville, CBD and Newtown

infrastructure are required to accommodate growth to ensure compliance with the National Policy Statement on Urban Development.
Mitigation and adaptation to
climate change - Climate change
is leading to an increase in extreme weather events, including extreme rainfall events and tandstips which leaves water assets vulnerable to disruption, as well increased droughts which increases the risl‹ of water shortages. Sea level rise and rising groundwater tables associated with climate change also have an impact on underground water assets and additional worl‹ is required to help us better understand the impact this will have on our infrastructure. The 2023 Climate Risl‹ Assessment Report highlighted coastal inundation causing asset damage to water services infrastructure as one of the highest ranl‹ed risl‹s, with a growing trend towards 2050 and 2100. Without adaptation, further climate-related changes are projected to have substantial impacts on water resources.

	Earthqual‹e hazards — The ground our three water assets are in is subject to earthqual‹es and other natural hazards which leaves them vulnerable to disruption.
Affordability and detiverability — The volume of worl‹ needed to l‹eep pace with the aging assets and growth is unaffordabte under the current funding environment and climate change impacts. Furthermore, the capacity of the construction marl‹et to deliver is limited. Due to increased environmental standards the requirements and costs for gaining and implementing resource consents is becoming more challenging and expensive. Whilst the number of teal‹s reported and detected has not increased significantly over the past few years, the cost to fix each leal‹ has increased significantly due to increasing costs of traffic management, health and safety, and other inflationary costs on contractor resources. The net result of all of this is an ever increasing repair bacl‹tog and decreasing levels of customer satisfaction.

Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “fix our water infrastructure and improve the health of waterways.“ We wilt also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.
The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.
Strategic rationalisation to better manage the overall asset portfolios — We wilt prioritise fixing drinl‹ing water supply teal‹s over investment in additional supply as this will increase supply reaching customers.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordability — For operational and financial efficiency and overall affordability Wellington Water has prioritised repairing and replacing highest criticality assets in a very poor and poor condition.

		

Issues and options
Issues

Options

Decision

Delivery Timing

COStS

Risks and Implications

	Date	

Aging assets and significant leaks across the water networks
Around 41% of our water is lost through leal‹s in the water system which reduces our supply capacity.

Managing water demand through education.
Finding teal‹s through installing more water

2024	2024	$2m (detailed business case) - OPEX
$3m (pressure control
2024	valves) - CAPEX
$144m (residential

Public engagement in voluntary water use reduction is at risl‹ with a bacl‹tog of water teal‹s.

Reservoir capacity and water supply
Wellington is an earthqual‹e prone city, where the lil‹etihood of emergency needs are significant.
Due to climate change, droughts are expected to become more common and more severe in Wellington over the coming 30 years, which will impact on water supply.
We have detailed investigation of the recommended water supply reservoir.
Recently invested in a 35 Mega Litre Omaroro Reservoir that is now in service, increasing resilience to the central city.
Additional water reservoirs are required to increase storage in the event supply pipes are disrupted. Two reservoirs are needed — one for the Northern suburbs, and one for the l¢etburn area to improve the city's resilience.
Additional upgrades and water reservoirs are required to facilitate the 30-year growth vision for Wellington across our priority growth areas

meters in the networl‹.
(Adopted)

Additional funds for reactive water maintenance to clear the bacl‹log of teal‹ repairs
Replace Belt Rd reservoir (has exceeded 100-year life and is in very poor condition)
Moa-i-te-ra Reservoir - NEW
Other options include education, and support for self sufficient water storage.
Develop Council Climate Adaptation Plan for Critical Assets & Infrastructure (Adopted)

2027—2030

2024

2027	Timing and scale of investment will be determined through further analysis.

smart meters) —CAPEX

$3.3m OPEX

Not identified at this time but indicative costs are $90m to replace
one reservoir.

Council Climate Adaptation Plan to be developed to inform the long-term water supply planning and investment.

Wellington Water to undertal‹e detailed growth assessments.

The installation of more pressure control values will assist in teal‹ detection and prioritised repair.

After the more recent earthqual‹es, some additional resilience water storage was put in place across the city.
More permanent structures such as reservoirs wilt need to be factored into long term planning.

NOTE: Dollar amounts are indicative for out vears and will be refined as more information is available and the implementation period draws

	

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78

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council

Wastewater Renewals
90,000,000
80,000,000
70,000,000
60,000,000
50,000,000
40,000,000
30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
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125 years and many parts of it are aged. The outdated legacy design, which involves redirecting wastewater to freshwater or stormwater during periods of high flows or blocl‹ages, presents a significant challenge in attaining the objective of preventing wastewater from entering freshwater sources. The wastewater system experiences regular btocl‹ages and overflows, posing both offensive and environmentally harmful consequences. The system is prone to overload during rainfall; it also teal‹s which allows stormwater ingress during wet weather and wastewater discharge during dry weather. This is l‹nown as inflow and infiltration (I&I) and has been an issue nationally for many years.
Mitigation and adaptation to climate change — Climate change
is leading to an increase in extreme weather events, including extreme rainfall events and landstips, which exacerbates wastewater
overflows. Sea level rise and rising groundwater tables associated with climate change also have an impact on underground water assets. The Moa Point and Porirua Wastewater Treatment Plants are located outside flood inundation

zones, meaning the l‹ey vulnerabilities in wastewater system are associated with infiltration of the pipe networl‹.
Earthqual‹e hazards and earthqual‹e prone buildings — The ground our three water assets are in are subject to earthqual‹es and other natural hazards which leaves them vulnerable to disruption. There was some localised damage of the wastewater networl‹ around the Port in 2016.
Affordability and detiverability — The volume of worl‹ needed to l‹eep pace with the aging assets and growth is unaffordabte under the current funding environment. Furthermore, the capacity of the construction marl‹et to deliver is limited. Additionally, due to changing standards the requirements and costs for gaining resource consents is becoming more challenging and expensive.
Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “fix our water infrastructure and improve the health of waterways.“ There is also a strong contribution to “collaborate with our communities to mitigate and adapt to climate

change,“ and “transform our waste system to enable a circular economy.“ We wilt also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.
The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.
Prioritising growth areas and changing demand — Higher standards to meet for Wastewater Global Consent. At times of heavy rainfalls enter our wastewater networl‹ which often leads to wastewater overflows into freshwater or marine environments. This is a compliance and environmental issue which will be addressed in the new global consent which has been lodged by Wellington Water with the Regional Council. This new consent will result in more stringent consent conditions and will mean additional costs when improving the networl‹ to ensure our overflows are mitigated. Once finalised we wilt be in a better position to understand options around investment requirements, but it will lil‹ely require a holding tanl‹ to contain overflows within a

l‹ey strategic part of the networl‹. This is expected to be by 2024- 2025 and will help to inform the next LTP. Assumptions have been made and included in the planning of the maintenance and renewals activities.
Targeting emissions reductions to the greatest gains and operational efficiency — We have prioritised completion of the sludge minimisation facility to remove sludge from the landfill. We wilt also prioritise building capacity in the networl‹ to remove overflow into the stormwater system and improve the health or our waterways.
Grow our understanding of adaptation impacts and costs — As we find and repair leal‹s in the wastewater pipe networl‹, we wilt seel‹ to understand the sea level rise issues and include any mitigation as we go.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordability — For operational and financial efficiency and overall affordability, we will prioritise repairing and replacing assets in very poor and poor condition and highest criticality.

		

Issues and options
Issues

Aging assets and significant wastewater overflows
The wastewater networl‹ is aging and wilt require prioritised renewals. During heavy rain events, stormwater gets into the wastewater pipes through inflow and infiltration, which can overwhelm the networl‹ and result in wastewater overflows.

Options
Ongoing repairs to maintain the wastewater networl‹.
Prioritised renewals throughout the wastewater networl‹ Critical renewals include:
Eastern Trunl‹ Main
Airport wastewater treatment triplicate interceptor
Pump station renewals

Decision	Delivery	Costs Date	 Timing
Ongoing	2024/25	$52.9m annual
investment will be required

Risks and Implications
Raw sewage would enter the centre in a collapse. The Airport has started redevetoping the logistics centre and the risl‹ collapse through construction is expected to increase. There is a contingency in place to pump sewage around the site if a collapse occurred, but this would be an OPEX cost to Council.
As with the Eastern Trunl‹ Main, the inside of one of the pipes at the airport is corroding and it is at very high risl‹ of collapse. Collapse wilt result in sewage spilling out through the Airport and l¢itbirnie in wet weather. Would be inefficient to renew this section in isolation of the other sections. Some procurement issues securing a contractor to do the worl‹.
Pump stations are critical assets that need a replacement plan to avoid asset failure. Failing to plan increases risl‹ of wastewater overflows impacting the environment and public health.
Pumpstations.

Carbon emissions and constraints on waste minimisation

Our efforts to minimise waste and reduce carbon emissions at the landfill are hampered by the requirement for wet sewage sludge disposal at Southern Landfill. The Sludge Minimisation Facility is under development which will remove residual water from the sludge, reduce its volume and render it inert and no longer a biohazard. It wilt reduce sludge volumes by up to 80%.

This option was consulted on in the 2021 LTP and is currently under construction.

2021	2023—2026	$400m
Operational by June 2026

This is a significant step in our efforts to reduce emissions and move towards a circular economy.

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82

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council

Stormwater drainage
Historically, the purpose of our stormwater system has been to drain rainwater from homes, premises, and roads to prevent flooding that creates risl‹s for public health and safety. The physical assets include pipes, culverts, and sumps, but the performance of the system is also highly dependent on overland flow paths, open channels and streams that carry the water around, rather than through individual properties, and enable the safe passage of stormwater when the pipe networl‹ is at capacity.
Streams have also been piped over time to enable the development of roads, buildings, and other city infrastructure. The stormwater systems around the city have been designed to a range of standards accommodate certain volumes of rainfall, meaning that some parts of the city are more prone to flooding than others.
Traditionally, stormwater has been about gravity drainage of rainwater. Increasingly however, it is also about water quality and environmental concerns, such as fish passage and a desire to ’daylight’ pipes streams.
This is a challenge to the traditional asset management approach.

A further challenge is the changing climate and sea level rise. The existing assets were not designed with these changes in mind, and therefore the stormwater networl‹ is increasingly unfit for purpose.
Seawater intrusion is now significant, and we need a greater level of granularity to understand how to meet this challenge now and into the future. For example, we will need to pump more stormwater in future. The current setup was not designed as a pressurised networl‹.
The existing stormwater systems discharge directly into the environment, but it is now recognised that stormwater is a source of contaminants that can impact on water quality and ecosystem health. Heavy metals (such as zinc and copper), hydrocarbons, sediments and nutrients enter the water from areas of urban development causing acute and chronic toxicity to the indigenous fish and invertebrates that once thrived in our city's waterways.
Changes in flow during low to moderate rainfall can also cause erosion in streams, and the discharge of ’hot’ stormwater in summer

rainfall can be detrimental to downstream ecosystems.
Tal‹en alt together, the adverse environmental impacts of the stormwater system can extend through the entire stream system to the harbour, where sediments smother life on the seafloor.
Wastewater that enters the stormwater system either through teal‹ing wastewater pipes, constructed overflows from the wastewater networl‹ or illegal connections, creates a significant public health risl‹ and prevents safe swimming in our streams or coastal waters following even moderate rainfall. It also impacts on the aquatic life and biodiversity of these water bodies. These matters need to be addressed in response to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater for the networl‹ to be compliant. This will require significant investment, including in nature-based urban environment solutions.
Asset overview
Our assets are valued (Optimised Replacement Value) at approximately
$2,342 million as at 30 June 2023 and include:

729l‹m of pipes
3l‹m tunnels
2 Pump stations
28,000 fittings

Asset condition and lifecycle
15.5% of stormwater pipes networl‹ are estimated to be in poor or very poor condition. However, the level of confidence of this information is tow, due to the bacl‹ of on-site condition assessment. This means that there is a high level of uncertainty in planning and forecasting maintenance and renewals.
Building assets are managed in SPM Asset Software. This includes individual asset records, asset registers, condition data, lifecycle analysis and reporting functionality.
Based on the desl‹top assessment and the VHCA worl‹, an estimate of the relative condition of assets is shown in the figures below. This information underpins the approach to investment planning, asset management planning, asset renewals and infrastructure project delivery.

		

$



Stormwater Renewals
100,000,000
90,000,000
80,000,000
70,000,000
60,000,000
50,000,000
40,000,000
30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0



patterns that at that time did not consider global warming and sea level rise, as it was not on the radar. Future investment wilt need to ensure that stormwater pipes are appropriately sized to accommodate changing needs.
Mitigation and adaptation to climate change — Stormwater is closely tinl‹ed with roading, flooding and land use. With climate change, stormwater management is til‹ety to be a constraint on the future shape of Wellington. The challenges with managing stormwater are expected to increase over time as the frequency of heavy rain events increases, sea level rise mal‹es it more difficult for stormwater to discharge, and as growth and intensification reduces ground permeability and impacts on overland flow paths. Historically, our stormwater planning has not been cognisant of climate change challenges such as more intense

rainfall and sea level rise. Our stormwater outlet systems are becoming less effective within our harbour due sea level rise within tow lying land.
Earthqual‹e hazards and earthqual‹e prone buildings — The ground our three water assets are in are subject to earthqual‹es and other natural hazards which leaves them vulnerable to disruption. Several earthqual‹es have also contributed to damage of many assets.
Affordability and detiverability — The volume of worl‹ needed to l‹eep pace with the aging assets and growth is unaffordabte under the current funding environment. Furthermore, the capacity of the construction marl‹et to deliver is limited. Additionally, due to changing standards the requirements and costs for gaining resource consents is becoming more challenging and expensive.

Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “fix our water infrastructure and improve the health of waterways.“ There is also a strong contribution to “collaborate with our communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change.“ We wilt also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.
The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.
Prioritising growth areas — We wilt prioritise investment in stormwater filtration and flood protection in conjunction with or ahead of transport infrastructure investment, public realm upgrades or housing development.
Targeting emissions reductions to the greatest gains and operational

efficiency — For operational efficiency, we will prioritise investment in stormwater filtration and flood protect in conjunction with or ahead of transport infrastructure investment, public realm, or housing development.
Grow our understanding of adaptation impacts and costs — We will focus on understanding where the greatest flooding risl‹s are and prioritise investment in nature- based solutions and flood containment in those areas. We will continue worl‹ing with Wellington Water to better understand our current risl‹ exposure to coastal hazards, and how adaptation planning can be integrated into renewals.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordability — We wilt prioritise repairing and replacing assets in very poor and poor condition and highest criticality.

		

						

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

	

3▸		

			

			

			

			

			

Waste
Strategic  direction Our modern way of living,
dependence on resource use, and unsustainable practices are causing environmental harm. In 2021 Wetlingtonians disposed 418l‹g of waste per person. As a city, this is in the midrange for waste per person compared to other cities in NZ and internationally.
We have recently published a Zero Waste Strategy, defining our role in waste, and recognising the need to set a pathway for intergenerationat sustainability, design waste and pollution out and l‹eeping resources in use for as long as possible. We also worl‹ with other councils in the region and jointly developed a Regional Waste Management and Minimisation Plan. Our strategy and the regional plan both outline a shift from managing waste to preventing waste, reuse of resources and recycling and is aligned to the Ministry for the Environment's Waste Strategy.
Efforts to achieve our objectives have been hampered by the sewerage waste being disposed into the landfill, with a condition that sludge must be mixed 1:4 with solid waste for stability. Last LTP we consulted on options to manage sludge differently. We are now building a

sludge dewatering plant which wilt remove at least 80% of sludge to the landfill, and there are potential opportunities to mal‹e use of the organic waste product that may eliminate sludge in the landfill altogether. To invest in this facility quicl‹ty, the council has utilised the Infrastructure Funding and Financing (IFF) tool.
This enables us to focus on removing other waste types from the landfill:
Organic waste
Construction and demolition
Plastics, pacl‹aging, and consumables.

Asset overview
Our assets are valued (Optimised Replacement Value) at approximately
$54.9 million as at 30 June 2023 and include:
The Southern Landfill
Capital Compost (composting facility)
The Tip Shop and Recycle Centre
Critical assets have been identified at the landfill based upon impact to the provision of the landfill as a service, as well as economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts. These critical assets include the following:
Landfill Access Road
Leachate Collection System
Stormwater Control System
Weighbridge and Associated Software
Landfill Tunnel

Asset condition and lifecycle
Overall data confidence for the Solid Waste portfolio is rated as "C - Medium". Whilst recent condition assessments have provided visibility of the built section of the portfolio, there is missing information for plant and equipment and infrastructure in a structured format. l¢nowledge of the condition of these assets is largely l‹nown — and associated renewal costs planned for, however this information does not exist in an asset information system.
Asset data pertaining to the Solid Waste portfolio is maintained primarily within WCC's Asset Management Information System. Plant and Equipment and Infrastructure assets are recognised as an unl‹nown condition, noting that there is an improvement plan to better capture this data.
The condition of l‹nown assets is primarily in the average to very good range, with only 4% of these assets rated as poor to very poor. 58% of these assets are expected to have in excess of half of their useful lives remaining before renewal is required.

Level of service and performance
Over two thirds of Weltingtonians are satisfied with recycling and waste collection services. The current service is supported by the Southern
Landfill, a gas capture system that is performing well, a composting facility, and the recycling centre and tip shop. While the existing service and assets are performing well, Council's Zero Waste Strategy proposes a higher level of service for Wetlingtonians for the future that removes organic waste, construction and demolition, and plastics, pacl‹aging, and consumables from the landfill. This wilt require a different approach to waste. The funding model needs to be updated, and additional investment wilt be required for new facilities.
Council's role
The Council has a legislative role to manage and minimise waste. This activity is inextricably linl‹ed to national regulations. We cannot just set bylaws to stop businesses producing waste, we must tal‹e collective ownership of the problem and support businesses and residents

through a hierarchy of interventions, as illustrated.
These assets enable provision of waste disposal services, and services enabling the diversion of waste from landfill. Council contractors and private operators provide l‹erbside collection services.
We also raise awareness on how to avoid waste, and we fund businesses to implement change that reduces their waste creation or contributes to the circular economy.
Key challenges
This activity group is affected by alt the identified l‹ey challenges.
Population growth and changing demand — The city's population is growing which will place greater pressure on the existing waste system in the years ahead.
Mitigation and adaptation to climate change — Community expectations are changing and want a system that is international best practice and supports them to be more environmentally sustainable. Approximately 80% of the Council's emissions are from the landfill, so focusing on

removing decomposing waste is l‹ey to reducing our emissions. To achieve that we need to shift from a model that manages waste to a system that enables people to avoid waste going to the landfill in the first place.
Affordability and detiverability — The processes and infrastructure are not in place to deliver our ambition to achieve a circular economy. It is expensive to invest in residual waste processing and disposal options. Big waste asset investments are needed at a time where both the council and the community have affordability constraints.
Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “transform our waste system to enable a circular economy.“ There is also a strong contribution to “improve the health of our waterways.“ We will also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.
The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal

options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.
Targeting emissions reductions to the greatest gains and operational efficiency — As per our Zero Waste Strategy, we will focus our efforts on reducing waste, by investing in plant and infrastructure that reduces waste, particularly organic matter.
Grow our understanding of adaptation impacts and costs — As residents and businesses become more capable of functioning without private vehicles, alternative was to enable access to recycling and waste management facilities becomes even more important. We will prioritise ensuring we have the right collection models to support the changing city.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordability — We have prioritised waste management and minimisation activities that avoid, reduce, and repair, repurpose and recycle. Where available we wilt seel‹ central government funding that enables this transition.

Issues and options
Issues

Options

Decision	Delivery	Costs Date	 Timing

Risks and Implications

Organic waste
There is increasing community expectation that councils provide organics waste solutions for

Investing in large scale	2024	Design —	$3m organics processing,			2025
supplemented by local

Difficult to acquire suitable land.
Collection service will also need to be reviewed to support the service.

households and businesses, to help reduce emissions and improve environmental outcomes. Organic waste contributes significantly to landfill emissions. We do not currently collect organic waste and have no local bylaws placing expectations on our residents. Not everyone can compost their organic waste in place. To address this, local authorities can intervene by investing in facilities to process organics on a large scale and then sell the nutrient rich products to support local food production, nature reserves, parl‹s, gardens, and other green spaces. A business case is in progress to identify options for processing organics.
Decision for progressing investment needs to be made in 2024.

community composting
(Adopted - $5Ol‹-$150l‹ will be used from the Waste Levy Fund for years 1-3 to support community compost hub providers).

Do nothing

Delivery
— 2025—
2027

$23m

We wilt need to utilise funding options from central government to deliver required system changes. We will need to get commercially savvy with investments in waste solutions.

Managing waste and servicing businesses and communities as we intensify the city.

A new waste system that	2024	2024-	$1Om provides a broader range		2026

The design of the new collection system needs to manage safety and

We currently only offer a rubbish bag and recycling bag or bin collection for residents, plus glass crates. The current system does not sufficiently separate different waste types.
A decision is needed in 2024 and cannot be made without the organics waste decision first.

of bins for collection of waste, cardboard, plastics, cans, glass, and organics to allow for improved separation of waste (Adopted).

Do nothing

2039—
2041

$15m

accessibility and enable contractors to collect the bins effectively. Multi-unit developments wilt need careful consideration. This is further complicated with the wind and topography of Wellington mal‹ing it a difficult challenge.
The proposal to introduce a container return scheme (CRS) in New Zealand has been paused with no clear timeline for finalising the scheme design. Any decision about future collection services should consider the flexibility to respond to the potential introduction of a CRS.

ii

Issues
Construction and demolition waste
Construction and demolition waste can include timber, concrete, glass, steel, bricl‹, pacl‹aging, metal, plasterboard, and other items. While it only mal‹es up 7% of the Southern Landfill disposal, there are other commercial landfills tal‹ing the butl‹ of this resource in Wellington. Construction and demolition waste mal‹es up 40— 50% of New Zealand's waste. Construction and demolition landfills in Wellington are reaching capacity, and a large volume of construction and demolition waste is unnecessary. We bacl‹ the regulation and infrastructure to support materials separation and processing at scale. Landfilting construction and demolition waste contributes to carbon emissions and is a seen as a waste of materials. Reuse and recycling can significantly contribute to the prevention of the need for new materials.
We do not see the council being the l‹ey operator in this space. However, if the marl‹et does not provide this WCC will need to worl‹ with other councils and private operators across the region to provide a solution.
Plastics, packaging, and consumables
Plastic, textiles, paper, cardboard, and e-waste mal‹e up a combined 20.6% of waste to the Southern Landfill. AU this waste could be re- used, repaired, repurposed, or recycled.
However, we do not currently have sufficient infrastructure to enable this. With higher community expectations council is lool‹ing to the marl‹et to provide the necessary infrastructure in the future.
A decision is needed by 2030.
Lack of cleanfill capacity
Wellington regional has limited cteanfil capacity and new options are essential. Options could

Options
Supporting commercial entities to start up, through regulations, brol‹erage, and land zoning.

Supporting commercial entities to start up, through regulations, brol‹erage, and land zoning.

Supporting commercial entities to start up, through regulations,

N/A

N/A

Risks and Implications

Decision	Delivery	Costs	
Date	Timing		
	N/A		

Assumes commercial viability, and no significant capital investment from the Council.

Assumes commercial viability, and no significant capital investment from the Council.

Assumes commercial viability, and no significant capital investment from the Council.

include partnerships, or leases to private contractors. Commercial establishments typically own cteanfitl.	brol‹erage, and land zoning.		
WCC has commenced a cteanfilt However as there is limited capacity this a short to mid-term solution.						
If the marl‹et does not provide a solution, the						
Council will need to consider further intervention
options by 2025.						
Long term landfill capacity	Southern Landfill	2023	Parts	$36 million	Monitoring of capacity will be	

Issues

Options

Decision	Delivery	Costs Date	 Timing

Risks and Implications

Growth in population and economic activity is til‹ely to drive up overall household waste generation. We need to actively pursue interventions that avoid waste generation, and enable repair, repurposing, reusing, regenerating, and recycling, as per our Zero Waste Strategy.
However, we will continue to need safe disposal of items such as hazardous waste. Our current landfill is consented until June 2026 and will be

Extension Piggybacl‹ Option (SLEPO) Parts A-D will provide 2.2 million cubic metres of landfill capacity, sufficient for 20 years at current rates.
Parts A & B, approved by Council in February 2023, to be consented,

TBC

A&B
2022—
2028

Parts C&D
will require

ongoing. We will require a decision for future capacity needs by 2029/2030

Capital funding of $54.5m to extend SLF is provided for in the LTP, Parts A&B wilt cost $36M.

Timing for Parts C&D to be confirmed and subject to future funding

reaching capacity by then. In the short term, in
addition to removing sludge from the landfill, we have tal‹en the decision to extend the current landfill providing capacity beyond 2026.
However, in the longer term there is til‹ety to be the need for additional landfill capacity.

constructed and
operational by June 2026

Parts	additional
C&D	funding -
timing	costs tbc
tbc

approval

Carey's Gully tunnel strengthening
A tunnel runs north to south underneath the Southern Landfill, channelling water from Carey's Gully stream upstream of the landfill under the landfill before discharging it downstream meeting Owhiro stream. With the decision to extend landfill capacity via SLEPO, rather than extend the Southern Landfill further into the gully, this tunnel wilt be required in perpetuity, and it has been identified that worl‹ is required to ensure the tunnel meets static and seismic resilience requirements.

Tunnel strengthening	2027 Timing Estimated worl‹s are being designed		tbc	$9 million and costed, and wilt be
finalised following a detailed survey of the tunnel, scheduled for December 2023
Option for tal‹ing at 75% renewals reduction is not available for this asset.
(Adopted)

Included in LTP and wilt be funded via closed landfill provision ($2.4M). The balance of the $9m has been signalled as a costs pressure in the AMP. The
$9m is an indicative cost estimate provision only. The detailed cost will be determined in 2024 once further tunnel investigation and detailed design worl‹s have alt been completed.
Tunnel strengthening worl‹s and the timing of this will be a condition of the SLEPO resource consent.

						

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	94

			

			

			

			

			

			

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	95

Land Transport
Strategic direction
Transport plays a significant role in shaping what the city is bil‹e to live and worl‹ in as well as visit — and is a significant contributor to overall quality of life. Our streets are our most significant public spaces and account for almost 50% of the Central City space. Our city is growing which places increasing demand on our transport system and space. Our physical environment is constrained, and we cannot build our way out of this challenge by adding more roading capacity. Our biggest challenges are how to move more people around the city with fewer vehicles and to mal‹e sure that our streets are attractive places for people to move through and spend time in.
One of the l‹ey mechanisms to help develop a transport system for the future has been to prioritise active and public transport modes over the private vehicle which is essential for Wellington City to:

Build resilience and adaptability to reduce disruptions and future uncertainty.
Have a more efficient and reliable transport networl‹.
\mprove road safety for alt users.
The transport activity has historically been subsidised by approximately 51% through The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) approved programmes. Investment in transport therefore must align to both our own strategies, and to the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport and the Regional Land Transport Plan. Alignment is important to achieve funding approvals. Changes in government often results in swings to different policy settings, resulting in the need to rethinl‹ or rephase our investment activities. There is a strong investment focus on optimising investments over time and decisions based on achieving long- term value for money.
The transport networl‹ is connected to the regional and national transport

extreme natural events such as earthqual‹es, slips and storms.
The Council adopted the Sustainable Transport Hierarchy together with Te Atal‹ura, which places watl‹ing, cycling and public transport as the top of the transport hierarchy for the city. To implement this and reduce our carbon emissions, the city's transport upgrade programmes and projects focus on system change to enable active and public transport solutions. The ongoing maintenance and renewals programmes are increasingly incorporating build bacl‹ better initiatives where possible to complement this changing focus. We are committed to the mode shift programme, as it is integral to better outcomes for the environment, community, and economy.
Asset overview
Our assets are valued (Optimised Replacement Value) at approximately
$2,494 million as at 30 June 2023 and include:

200 seawaffs
8I‹m bus priority lanes
Asset condition and lifecycle
Data confidence for the Transport portfolio is rated as "A - Very High" There is a minimal level of uncertainty with recent and ongoing assessments of data tal‹ing place for the entire portfolio. The dataset is maintained and audited regularly and is in line with national standards and expectations for NZTA.
Asset data pertaining to the Transport Portfolio is maintained within WCC's Transport Asset Management System RAMM. The data has been aggregated into common groupings representative of the primary services they deliver across the networl‹.

Reduce our carbon emissions by increasing mode shift away from reliance on private vehicles.
Greater liveability, including enhanced urban amenity and enables urban development outcomes.

networl‹, and we must also worl‹ closely with our neighbouring councils and NZTA to coordinate our investments.
Wellington’s local transport networl‹ is on difficult terrain — it is steep, winding with lots of tight corners, narrow, old and is exposed to

904I‹m of footpaths
Over 19,000 streettights

3755 structures
700I‹m roads
40I‹m bil‹e lanes
2I‹m bridges and tunnels

		

How we forecast Asset renewals Renewals of assets within the Land Transport activity are driven from data and through the use of modelling combined with criticality (lifelines for example) and level of service required. The RAMM database is continually updated with networl‹ inspections and worl‹ completed. The modelling is field verified to validate the program of worl‹. Programs are considered under a whole of life cost model which is currently overlaid by budget constraints. Budget constraints can lead to higher overall cost as we are effectively moving investment into later years. Lower
Asset Condition

a Very Good	Good	Average

100

90

80

70

renewals generally means an increase in maintenance in future years. The confidence in our data allows the Land Transport team to schedule maintenance and renewals with confidence and accuracy to meet the networl‹s' needs. Lifecycle forecasts are captured and provided in the financial section of the Activity Management plan and summarised in the financial section of this document.
Across transport networl‹ assets the Council has high confidence in the quality of information of asset condition and its ability to prioritise

Poor  • Very Poar  • Un kn own

renewal spending where the greatest need is, such as, safety, resilience, connectivity, and mode shift. In addition to prioritisation, transport delivery are able to seel‹ value for money options through good procurement practices and review programme options for more cost- effective options and partnering with suppliers. For each asset within transport, choices have been made to balance this budget. Overall, the 75% renewals target was not able to be achieved in transport.
Road Surface — Overall condition of the road surface is good, and a reduced funding level can be managed, accepting some deterioration, and increased safety risl‹.
Pavement — Tal‹ing 75% approach to the pavement condition presents a high safety risl‹, and the decision has been tal‹en to invest at 100% to maintain the asset and

decision has been tal‹en to fully fund drainage asset renewals.
Structures and Structural components — There is a need to improve the asset condition of structures, however there is some concern about the confidence in delivering an increased programme. A middle ground has been tal‹en to maintain asset condition, without compromising safety or seeing a reduction in levels of service. The priority of the funding is on resilience.
Traffic Services Assets - A full reduction in budget would result in increased safety risl‹s and deteriorating condition. A middle ground was agreed with these assets.
Cycteways — A significant reduction in cycleway renewals was agreed, accepting a deteriorating condition and increased safety risl‹.

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
ROads

i

P ath ways

Struc tures

Dra inag e	Safety

safety is not compromised. The damage being caused by heavy vehicles and the double decl‹er buses was also a factor.
Footpath — There is a small increase in trip hazards, but safety can be maintained at a reduced funded renewal programme. A trend of underspending has also been factored in.
Drainage Assets — Ineffective flood management would occur with a reduced renewal reduction, so the

Level of service and performance
At a high level, the city's transport system is generally performing adequately from safety and accessibility perspectives. Asset condition is acceptable with investment based on l‹nown parameters. Many of the monitored levels of customer satisfaction are showing a slow downward trend but this runs counter to asset condition which for many assets is stable.

Figure 12: Land Transport Asset Condition

Ba mälaa mAasa agAasa laa| Me ■-	NæIIÉB—OU		ÉÉ

Wellington is a compact city where	natural environment. To achieve this cycling and wall‹ing are a preferred	 our role extends to:

growth adds to this problem, especially if we do not provide

particulate matter and nitrogen oxides which have adverse effects

travel mode for a dedicated segment of the community for shorter trips. Public transport, delivered through an extensive bus networl‹ commissioned by the regional

Planning, delivering, maintaining and operating our transport system.
Developing the transport networl‹

more efficient ways for people to move around the city and region. Intensification of housing will support reducing the need to travel. But travel is a response to

on human health and the environment. Climate change is associated with extreme weather events, posing a threat to infrastructure — coastal roads are

council, combined with trains to the	to meet future needs of the city.

how the city is configured and

at risl‹ of erosion and flooding due

north is a vital transport mode for

Supporting the city's public

those outer areas will continue to

to more severe and frequent

many commuters. Capacity and	 transport networl‹ by providing reliability have impacted the bus	 space for the networl‹ to run service, but reliability and patronage	efficiently and encouraging people is increasing again post Covid.	 to use it.
Travel times are modest outside peal‹	 Ensuring our transport networl‹ is congestion times, and the traditional		 safe for alt users by mal‹ing congestion periods are more muted		ongoing improvements and
with greater tal‹e-up of worl‹ing from	 educating and promoting safe home and flexible worl‹ing	behaviours.

need to travel by vehicles due to the distance. This configuration is also a contributing factor to sedentary lifestyles and poor public health outcomes. Mode shift is a l‹ey response to this challenge, but capital projects cause major disruption and some parts of the community challenge

weather events. These impacts affect planning and maintenance, where stormwater needs alternative management options, and roads, bridges and retaining walls become vulnerable to slips. We need to achieve emissions reductions white managing growth.

arrangements in recent years (circa 15 percent of the city's worI‹force worI‹s from home per weeI‹day).

Enhancing the attractiveness of watl‹ing or cycling around the city, through urban design, planting,

the changes. Furthermore,
investment in safety interventions is not yet leading to an overall reduction in harm.

Earthqual‹e hazards and
earthqual‹e prone buildings — Wellington’s natural hazards are well l‹nown and a major challenge

As a city with a growing population,	new infrastructure, and promotion
and limited space, we must mal‹e	Of active transport.

	Aging and declining condition of infrastructure — The main issue

for the city and its infrastructure. The topography of the natural

best use of existing transport

Monitoring different modes of

with aging infrastructure is related

environment and the cut-fill built

corridors to accommodate population	 transport, understanding barriers and business growth. Investment is	to change, and maI‹ing it safer, ptanned for the cycting, wall‹ing and	 easier, and more enjoyabte as well public transport networl‹s tO	 as convenient to watl‹, cycle and accommodate this growth and meet	use public transport.
our city tiveability and carbon goats.

to structures. This is the biggest asset value in our transport networl‹. This includes retaining walls, bridges, and tunnels. This does mean an increasing need for investment over the next 10 years.

environment can result in slips, flooding, and tiquefaction issues. This can result in disruptions during weather and seismic events. There are also additional costs associated with clean-up after any

Council's role
Our role is to provide the infrastructure necessary for people to participate in economic, social, and cultural activities. We must do this while protecting and enhancing the

Key challenges
This activity group is affected by alt the identified l‹ey challenges.
Population growth and changing demand —Growing traffic congestion and unreliable travel times are an issue. Population

Mitigation and adaptation to climate change —The transport sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels in vehicles. Combustion engines also emit air pollutants such as

events as well as proactively mal‹ing our transport networl‹ and associated infrastructure more resilient. The topography and small number of routes available to some areas of the city also creates vulnerability.

Ba mälaa mAasa agAasa laa | Me ■-	Næ IIÉB—OU

Affordability and detiverability — AU these challenges result in increased costs for management and maintenance of our transport networl‹. The current marl‹et is very constrained which has resulted in costs escalations. Delivering on commitments in a resource constrained environment can impact response times for some services and customer satisfaction around levels of service. This is requiring more effort from staff to respond to reactive issues.
Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “transform our transport system to move more people with fewer vehicles.“ There is also a strong contribution to "collaborate with our communities to mitigate and adapt to climate change,“ “revitalise the city and suburbs to support a thriving and resilient economy and support job growth“ and ”celebrate and mal‹e visible te ao Mâori across our city.“ We wilt also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.
The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.

Prioritising growth areas — Transport improvement projects are prioritised in accordance with the spatial plan priority growth areas. This is to enable housing growth and densification while maintaining levels of service for transport access.
Targeting emissions reductions to the greatest gains and operational efficiency — Transport is a significant contributor to climate emissions. We wilt focus our efforts on improvements that enable low or zero emissions transport, which also deliver operational efficiency. This means prioritising public transport, cycling, and wall‹ing infrastructure.
Grow our understanding of adaptation impacts and costs — As we invest in infrastructure improvements, new infrastructure and our maintenance and renewals, we wilt seel‹ to understand the issues for the area and incorporate adaptation measures.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordability — Our investments wilt tal‹e a combined approach from managing demand, and optimising what we have, to investing in new infrastructure. We wilt prioritise public transport by investing in bus priority infrastructure. Public

transport and active modes wilt be prioritised in and around the city and town centres to support economic vibrancy and ease of access. We will ensure we have considered all options and are investing cost-effectively.
Issues and options
Supporting mode shift. improving safety. and reducing vehicle kilometres travelled
The physical transport networl‹ in Wellington is constrained due to topographical features of the area and this has guided housing construction. North/south connections are the dominant travel connections in Wellington with a shortage of east/west connections. This creates congestion chol‹epoints resulting in uncertain travel times for public transport, freight, and private vehicles.
Additionally, public transport is not an efficient option for many journeys, so cars remain the most practical mode of travel for many journeys. A l‹ey method to reduce congestion is to encourage watl‹ing, cycling and public transport, but these options are often not seen as safe enough to be a real option.
In alignment with the Spatial Plan, adapting the Transport Networl‹ to reflect the sustainable transport hierarchy is a focus.

We have reviewed the People- friendly Streets Project, and decided to progress the highest priority projects planned, including the second bus priority route through the central city and improvements on the routes between CBD and Miramar for bil‹ing, wall‹ing, and bus priority. We will be developing a multi-modal programme, including bus priority improvements to guide the prioritisation of individual projects beyond year 5.
We are continuing to deliver the bil‹e networl‹ and sustainable streets programme, but at reduced cost, by building on the transitional approach but using more permanent materials and infrastructure where required, to complete most of the networl‹ over the next 10 years. This will save
$66m over ten years.
We have also reviewed the Thorndon Quay and Hutt Rd project. The roundabout on Aotea Quay will progress, but the Hutt Road portion of the project wilt be removed, at a cost saving of $10m.
High cost of transport maintenance and renewals
We have a higher cost of transport road maintenance in Wellington City, relative to other councils with similar transport networl‹s. The sub- structure of Wellington’s roads consists of flexible, highly water susceptible clays. This creates issues with the maintenance of the networl‹.

		

The construction of a roading networl‹ within the topographical constraints of the area has resulting in the need for a substantial number of structures across the district. This steep topography also requires and extensive networl‹ of drainage assets as we need to control the stormwater runoff. These combined challenges create a cost of maintenance environment which is high and there is no easy solution.

High axle loads from Electric busses is also leading to accelerated pavement deterioration on bus routes.
We also have an aging asset base which becomes more expensive to maintain white delivering the service levels our customers expect.

Resilience - Slips above and below roads. retaining walls. sea walls and other structures that support our roads.
There has been an adverse trend in the condition of our structures as reported by the structures condition assessments carried out over the last five years. Some transport corridors, including critical routes, do not meet current structural codes and therefore present a resilience risl‹.

As more worl‹ is done over coming years to assess infrastructure against new standards, it is highly til‹ety that, yet undiscovered worl‹ will need to be undertal‹en to address resilience issues. Structural upgrades are high- cost items which wilt add to funding pressures in the future, including where growing climate change adaptation planning is required.

Issues

Options

Decision	Delivery	Costs Date	 Timing

Risks and Implications

Supporting mode shift, improving safety, and reducing

Housing densification — enabled by the	District District Plan (non-asset solution	Plan to
underway)	be

District Plan: Commissioners mal‹e significant changes to the Proposed District Plan through their decisions.

vehicle kilometres travelled

(part of adopted approach — integrated land use planning)

adopted in 2024

Supporting mode shift, improving safety, and reducing vehicle kilometres travelled

Demand Management — behaviour	ongoing	2024-34	OPEX — ongoing change programme (non-asset			 funding through LTP
solution, ongoing)	at $0.4, pa
(part of adopted approach —managing demand)

Demand management: lower levels of infrastructure investment may result in it mal‹ing more challenging to encourage behaviour change.

Supporting mode shift, improving safety, and reducing vehicle kilometres travelled

\mproved cycteways networl‹ to support active travel and bus priority interventions to increase PT use
(part of adopted approach — optimising the networl‹)

ongoing	2024-34	$35.9m
2034—44	$62m
2044—54	$50.5m

Active and public transport: With a change in government, the level of investment aligned to some of Council's priority transport areas may shift resulting in tower levels of subsidy and a need to revisit timing assumptions.

Supporting mode shift, improving safety, and reducing vehicle kilometres travelled

\mproved public transport priority and	2024	2024-34	$104.5m facilities for active travel in streets to
and through the central city

(part of adopted approach — optimising the networl‹)

Active and public transport: With a change in government, the level of investment aligned to some of Council's priority transport areas may shift resulting in tower levels of

I

Issues

Supporting mode shift, improving safety, and reducing vehicle kilometres travelled

Options

Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)
(part of long-term preferred approach
— new infrastructure)

Decision	Delivery Date	 Timing

Not	not yet provided	 estabtished for in this
LTP

COStS

not yet established

Risks and Implications
subsidy and a need to revisit timing assumptions.
MRT: with the change in government, this has been signalled as not being a priority for funding. This wilt be confirmed through the GPS transport which is expected in early 2024.

Supporting mode shift. improving safety. and reducing vehicle kilometres travelled

High cost of transport maintenance and renewals

High cost of transport

Increase upgrades funding to do more	2024	TBC worl‹sooner.
Fund renewals at 75% and seel‹value for	2024	2024-2033
money options through good	2033-2054
procurement practices and review programme options for more cost- effective options. Partner with suppliers.
Reduced funding on cycleways renewals	2024	2024-2033

Incremental costs above preferred programme levels to accelerate delivery. Up to $600 million across transport upgrade programmes
$39.3 m pa
$58.2 m pa

$41.9 m pa

Dependant on the level of subsidy from the government.

Deferring 25% of renewals does carry some risl‹. This will be managed through prioritising where the greatest need is, such as, safety, resilience, connectivity, and mode shift.
This approach increases the IiI‹eIihood of

maintenance and renewals

High cost of transport maintenance and renewals
Resilience - Slips above and below roads. retaining walls. sea walls and other structures that support our roads.

resulting from less capital investment in cycleway development, maintaining existing levels of service for resurfacing - 30% reduction. (Adopted)
Fully fund renewals

Fund a programme of upgrades and renewals tal‹ing a risl‹-based approach to ensure the highest priority worl‹ is undertal‹en first.

2033-2054

2024	2024-2033
2033-2054

annual budget

$55 m pa

$52.5pa
$45m pa

$10m pa

surfacing faults across the networl‹, which reduces customer levels of service.

Infrastructure failures can disrupt travel times and impact commuters and businesses. Asset failures can also result in health and safety consequences.
Several transport routes in the city have been designated as emergency routes which need higher levels of resilience to ensure lifelines.

NOTE: Dollar amounts are indicative for out years and will be refined as more information is available and the implementation period draws closer.

Ba mälaa mAasa agAasa laa| Me ■-	NæIIÉB—OU		•i

			

			

			

			

			

			

Buildings(including civic buildings, venues, social housing)

Strategic direction

more expensive compared to other	 affordability of tenancies. We have a cities.	housing strategy, adopted in 2018,

The Bond Store (earthqual‹e prone)

The investment in Wellington's performance arts venues enhances the city's creative ecosystem. These venues play a crucial role in hosting a variety of events, including arts, cultural activities, community gatherings, and international sports events.
Wetlingtonians have a strong passion for entertainment and the arts and need accessible venues with suitable infrastructure and technology to support vibrant creative expression day and night.
Our performing arts venues are old, have seismic issues, and have the challenge of needing to adapt to climate change. When repairing and upgrading our facilities we also have an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through green building standards, which wilt also contribute to reduced heating and cooling bills.
The existing assets within these venues, such as sound systems, public facilities, and l‹itchens, are essential for supporting diverse activities. White the venues meet the needs of hirers, there have been complaints about the additional cost burden on organisers who must bring their own equipment, mal‹ing setup

A recent review of WCC's civic performance venues identified that the WCC operating model for the performing arts venues (Shed 6, TSB Arena, Town Halt, MFC (Michael Fowler Centre), Opera House, St James Theatre) is sub-optimal, and not set-up for success. The model in its current form lacl‹s alignment, transparency, and accountability in relation to how civic performance venues contribute to agreed WCC strategies and objectives. There is a significant opportunity to shift to a more effective operating model, including tal‹ing a strategic portfolio investment approach to the civic performance venues. The Economic Wellbeing Strategy underscores the city's dependence on performing arts and sports venues to drive a dynamic and vibrant economy.
We own a large portfolio of social housing assets. Housing in Wellington is becoming tess affordable and there is growing pressure on the Wellington Housing marl‹et. Housing needs to be affordable if all Weflingtonians are to have safe, warm, dry homes that meet their needs. Te Toi Mahana (a community housing provider) operates the Council's social housing function and controls the

that seeks a housing system that supports sustainable, resilient, and connected communities, and ensures a well-functioning housing system, meeting the needs of Wettingtonians. The housing strategy influences the planning frameworl‹s (such as the District Plan) and programmes such as Te l¢ainga.
Asset overview
Our assets are valued (Optimised Replacement Value) at approximately
$620.7 million as at 30 June 2023 and include but are not limited to:
Wellington Venues (operationally managed by Venues Wellington):
Michael Fowler Centre (recently identified as earthqual‹e prone)
The Opera House (recently identified as earthqual‹e prone)
St James Theatre (reopened 2022)
Town Halt (closed for seismic strengthening since 2013)
TSB Banl‹ Arena
Museums Wellington (operationally managed by Experience Wellington):
City Gallery
Space Place at Carter Observatory
Nairn Street Cottage

Other:
Tâl‹ina Exhibition and convention centre (new, opened 2023) - (run by Te Papa foundation)
Hannah Playhouse —(run by Wcc)
Embassy Theatre (seismic assessment underway)
Te Whaea National Dance and DramaCentre
CAB (earthqual‹e prone)
MOB (earthqual‹e prone)
The Basin Reserve
SI‹y Stadium (co-owned with GWRC)
Capital E (former — earthqual‹e prone)
Waterfront buildings and assets
Shed 1 (earthqual‹e prone), Shed 3, Shed 5, and Shed 6
Our social housing assets are valued (Optimised Replacement Value) at approximately $401.8 million as at 30 June 2023 and include:
275 social housing buildings, containing:
1786 units
2713 bedrooms
4835 bed spaces

		

°	with through operational or
,	tt	reactive maintenance through the

"	current vacate process at end of tenancy. Alongside this, levels of risl‹ are lowered through the delivery of the HUP2 worl‹ programme and any renewals that will tal‹e place as part of this worl‹. Furthermore, the renewals programme is delivered based upon prioritisation of individual

requirements has impacted some sectors. This has been offset with the recent opening of Tâl‹ina which has provided the city with a new world class conference and events centre.
There are still several civic facilities bil‹e the Opera House, Wellington Museum and the Michael Fowler Centre that will require earthqual‹e remediation in the coming years but remain operational in the meantime.

Figure 14: Buildings 20 Year Asset Lifecycle Analysis - Unconstrained Expenditure

components based upon risl‹ and

The earthqual‹e remediation of civic

Applying 75•A Renewals Funding
Civic buildings will be managed by prioritising safety and compliance. The 75% funding of renewals may result in an increased emergency maintenance in outer years. However, City Gallery is the l‹ey civic building needing renewal. The potential redevelopment of CAB & MOB means we won't be doing any renewals on these buildings, and the Town Halt and Library are currently being redeveloped. Basin Reserve Renewals wilt be prioritised together with the Basin Reserve Trust. We will support them to manage this budget. The most important focus wilt be on the turf and irrigation. Wellington Venues need seismic remediation. Detailed options analysis is being worl‹ed through to identify which buildings and investment are needed for future service provision. This information will inform the

renewals programme from year 2. Therefore, bare minimum renewals will be applied to l‹eep these facilities functional (ie: Michael Fowler Centre, Opera House).
For housing renewals,75% renewal funding has been applied. While Council condition information shows housing assets mainly being in very good or good condition, asset condition information is currently not fully up to date with the most recent comprehensive SPM data survey being performed in 2016 and therefore may not be reflective of current condition. A higher level of condition uncertainty creates some risl‹ and uncertainty in our ability to prioritise renewal spending. The level of risl‹ associated with the deferral of these renewals has been deemed to be relatively low, as a large proportion of these renewals are tow-cost or low-risl‹ renewals that are primarily dealt

criticality. It is envisaged that once the full asset condition survey is completed in 2024 the Council and CHP will jointly develop and continue delivery of a strong renewals plan within the budget available. City Housing renewals are prioritised to safety and accessibility. Funding renewals at 75% carries greater risl‹ in that it creates more property vacancies due to the poor condition. This incurs additional costs to the Council.
Level of service and performance

The breadth of facilities that the council owns to support cultural, economic, and social services in the city is significant. While the Council has been able to maintain service levels so that cultural expression and economic activity such as conferences and events can continue, the closure of the Town Hall for earthqual‹e strengthening

venues wilt tal‹e a few years to worl‹ through.
Currently, venue usage is suboptimal at 51%, primarily because the venues have not been modernised to accommodate a larger number of events with diverse content. This gap means the city is not fully meeting the needs of event organizers and younger audiences, highlighting the necessity for a venue strategy to address these challenges and optimise venue utilisation.
The Council has provided Social Housing since the 1950’s. It is now managed under lease by Te Toi Mahana Trust. The performance of the housing stocl‹ is generally good. Tenant satisfaction is high. About half of the housing stocl‹ has been upgraded to meet modern requirements and standards over the last 20 years as part of a cost sharing arrangement with the Crown, and the remainder of the housing stocl‹ will be upgraded in the coming years.

•a

Council's role
Our role is to support economic, social, and cultural outcomes for the people of the city. Our venues, civic buildings and waterfront contribute to this. We currently own many buildings. We operate some services ourselves, and contract out other services, through Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs).
The councit's role in housing is broad:
Enabling capacity, supply, and affordabitity through the District Plan.
Consenting and compliance.
Cotlaborating with others to support Mâori housing security and supporting rentat housing supply (Te l¢äinga partnership programme).
Addressing hometessness.
Public social housing.
Key challenges
This activity group is affected by alt the identified l‹ey challenges.
Population growth and changing demand — Some venues have low utilisation rates and content is expected to shift the new and refurbished venues in the coming years. There are gaps with audience interaction equipment and integration with the venues' surroundings. There is potential to

tap into unsatisfied demand through scalable and flexible facilities, and target content to different age groups such as the under 35s. Fit for purpose housing means safe, secure, warm & dry, and meets the needs of the residents. Regarding our social housing stocl‹, we have completed half of the upgrades needed to meet healthy, safe, and inclusive homes standards.
Aging and declining condition of infrastructure —Maintenance of many of our buildings has been deferred for many years. Venues have also suffered from lacl‹ of investment in modern technology. This bacl‹ of investment impacts the operations, and ability to mal‹e the venues sustainable and useful. Our social housing is aging, not accessible, inclusive, or efficient and are no longer fit-for-purpose.
Mitigation and adaptation to climate change — Many of our venues and buildings are subject to a range of natural hazards including flooding and coastal inundation; some are built on wharves. Refurbishing these buildings presents opportunities to reduce emissions, climate risl‹ and be more fit for purpose, including addressing accessibility, suitability, and stal‹ehotder needs. Housing can also contribute to emissions reductions by being energy

efficient. Our portfolio needs to be assessed for the future risl‹s associated with climate change.
Earthqual‹e hazards and earthqual‹e prone buildings — Many of our venues and buildings are situated on reclaimed land and are subject to a range of natural hazards including earthqual‹es. Unl‹nown costs associated with remediation worl‹s arise due to the vulnerability of the land to seismic events, ground conditions and sea level rise. Tough decisions are needed as part of this LTP to identify the most strategic way forward. Strategic portfolio management of these buildings is necessary. The level of strengthening wilt need to factor in usage. This wilt be considered through a detailed options analysis report that wilt determine the future of the arts and culture and civic building portfolio. We anticipate that this will be ready for the 2027-37 LTP with investigations funded in this LTP. While our city housing portfolio is not earthqual‹e prone, it does need upgrading to meet higher earthqual‹e safety standards.
Affordability and detiverability — The challenge is large, and the cost to solve it will be even larger. A strategic plan to deliver the right venues and buildings over the next 30 years is needed. We have faced

challenges recently with costs increasing, and discovering issues once the building worl‹ has commenced. Management of these significant projects requires sound advice and governance to mal‹e strategically sound investment decisions in the future.
Affordability has been an issue, and we have been part-funded by the Crown to be able to mal‹e these upgrades to social housing assets.

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Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “Revitalise the city and suburbs to support a thriving and resilient economy and support job growth.“ There is also a strong contribution to “increase access to good, affordable housing to improve the wellbeing of our communities“ and ”celebrate and mal‹e visible te ao Mâori across our city.“ We wilt also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.
The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.
Prioritising growth areas — While prioritising growth areas will be considered, this is tess of a consideration for this asset group, as the assets are destination assets for the whole city and in some cases for the region.
Targeting emissions reductions to the greatest gains and operational efficiency — There is a significant opportunity to address building and energy relation emissions when we remediate and build new assets. We will focus on these opportunities when buildings are being repaired or new buildings are being constructed, but we will

not be putting effort into retrofitting buildings where there would otherwise not be any construction activity.
Grow our understanding of adaptation impacts and costs — As we tal‹e stocl‹ of the scale of the issue with our civic buildings and venues, we will develop our understanding of the adaptation needs, and tal‹e this into account when mal‹ing decisions. This might include choosing not to place new buildings or rebuild in disaster prone areas but rather demolish buildings instead of remediation due to the challenges on the site.
Strategic rationalisation to better manage the overall asset portfolios — Some of our buildings and venues have overlapping purposes. Because of the size and scale of the portfolio and the complexity and costs of the issues, we wilt complete the remediation projects underway, but will pause and reset to tal‹e a strategic portfolio view before mal‹ing further decisions. This will allow
the council to understand what the city needs and how best to deliver.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordability — Managing, maintaining and renewing such large buildings is costly. Understanding needs is important to help mal‹e decisions about demand management,

optimisation, and renewal and replacement or demolishing. Options should also include consideration of demolishing to replace and demolished and not replacing.
Issues and options
In 2023 the Council decided to complete earthqual‹e strengthening worl‹ already underway. The Town Halt and Library are already in progress with re-opening expected in 2027 and full completion in 2028.
This is a significant expenditure of
$546.7m over 2024 to 2028.
Administration buildings (CAB & MOB)
It is unaffordable to rebuild alt the buildings we own. These buildings are vacant and have been for some time. To remediate within the required timeframe, we must tal‹e tough decisions.
We wilt also investigate options for including Experience Wellington and WetlingtonNZ in the Council office fitout.
Remediation options for Te Ngâkau the City to Sea Bridge. Civic Square basement. and Capital E
It is unaffordabte to rebuild or remediate alt the buildings we own. These buildings are vacant and have been for some time. To remediate within the required timeframe, we must tal‹e tough decisions.

Scale of total programme costs for buitdings and Te Ngal‹au is unl‹nown.
A business case is under development. This will consider the most strategic and cost-effective solutions to managing the portfolio so that it best delivers on our community outcomes, and long-term sustainability.
Addressing seismic issues. carbon emissions reduction and ensuring civic buildings and performance venues are fit for purpose Wellington has a large portfolio of civic performance / entertainment venues for a city of its size. Some of these venues are near one another and fulfil a similar marl‹et purpose, for example: MFC & Town Halt.
Addressing seismic regulatory requirements for earthqual‹e prone buildings is mandatory.
Opportunities exist to improve performance of assets including, ability to widen audience / experience offerings. Venue utilisation, reduction of carbon emissions (response to Te Atal‹ura), etc.
Sky Stadium health and Safety The Sl‹y Stadium is 25 years old. The Stadium has done well in its first 20 years and was able to remain financially autonomous and
contributes to self-fund its capex and opex. This has now changed due to;

		

Recent earthqual‹es and seismic improvements subsequently required.
Impact of earthqual‹es on insurance premiums
Covid 19 Financial Impacts
Civic buildings renewals
The current renewal requirements are substantial and cannot be fully funded if the Council is to operate within the limits identified in the Financial Strategy.
Basin reserve renewals
The current renewal requirements are substantial and cannot be fully funded if the Council is to operate within the limits identified in the Financial Strategy. Funding Basin Reserve asset renewals at 75% of unconstrained budget is possible because of improved asset management planning data and information.
Earthqual‹e strengthening has been invested in, and critical safety is already addressed.

Wellington Venues renewals
The current renewal requirements are substantial and cannot be fully funded if the Council is to operate within the limits identified in the Financial Strategy. Funding Wellington Venues asset renewals at 75% of unconstrained budget is possible because of improved asset management planning data and information.
Social Housing Upgrade Programme
Existing social housing assets are currently being upgraded through a partnership programme with the Crown. Providing access for alt New Zealanders to affordable, sustainable, good quality housing appropriate to their needs is the vision of the New Zealand Housing strategy that drove the need to upgrade the council's social housing. In 2007 the Council reached an agreement with the Crown to develop an upgrade programme where the Crown offered $220m to contribute to the upgrade of the portfolio to ensure the Council's social housing portfolio is safe and secure, and to a good standard for modern living. The first phase of the programme (HUP1) was completed in 2018 which saw upgrade of approximately half of the portfolio upgraded and full expenditure of the Crown grant. Planning for the second phase of the programme is underway.

Planning and delivery is currently underway. There are two active projects underway in HUP2. Aside from that worl‹ing toward completing a programme business case in 2024 detailing several programme options for consideration
/ decision mal‹ing.
Housing Renewals programme
The aging condition of existing social housing assets requires ongoing attention. But financial affordability does put significant constraint onto the programme.

•a

Issues	Options	Decision
Date	Delivery	Costs	Risks and Implications	
Administration buitdings (CAB & MOB)	Demotish (Adopted - note, decision to demotish CAB has atready been approved)	2023	2024-2027	$7.8m	Not being able to partner with private sector and being left with a vacant site.	
Administration buitdings (CAB & MOB)	Partner with private sector to remediate or redevelop — this option is contingent on demolish
option above (Adopted)	2024	Unl‹nown	Unl‹nown	We do not have control of the timing	
Administration buitdings (CAB & MOB)	Sell as is and leave to marl‹et to remediate	2024	Unl‹nown	Unl‹nown	We do not have control of the timing	
Administration buitdings (CAB &	Do Nothing	2024	Unl‹nown	Unl‹nown	Reputation risl‹s and safety risl‹s as two large buildings will sit idle and vacant on a l‹ey location.	
MOB)					Risl‹s to economic and social wetlbeing of the civic precinct and the wider area	
					Risl‹s to Wellington Town Hall project as it relies on MOB site to address some of the “front of house” issues.	
Remediation options for Te Ngâl‹au the City to Sea Bridge, Civic Square basement, and Capital E	Demotish (Final decisions will inform 2027 LTP)	2027	2027—2030	$65m		
Remediation options for Te Ngâl‹au the City to Sea Bridge, Civic Square basement, and Capital E	Strengthen	2027	2027—2030	$240m	High level of investment in assets that are exposed to climate change risl‹.	
Remediation options for Te Ngâl‹au the City	Do nothing	2024	NA	Unl‹nown	The risI‹s of doing nothing regarding the earthquaI‹e prone structures of Te Ngal‹au:	

Timing

to Sea Bridge, Civic Square basement, and Capital E

Risl‹ to the public safety in case of a major earthqual‹e
Reputational risl‹s as we pressure private owners to remediate their buildings.
Fines by the regulators if we do not meet our regulatory requirements.

•a

Issues
Addressing seismic

Options	Decision	Delivery	Costs Date	 Timing
Investigate the full portfolio of	2027	Feasibility /	Opex

Risks and Implications
Loss of venues (either temporarily or permanently)

issues, carbon emissions reduction and ensuring civic buildings and performance venues are fit for purpose

civic buildings and venues deemed	Investigation
earthqual‹e prone to mal‹e a	2024-2027
strategic portfolio decision for the remaining buildings' future, these considerations include demolition, divestment, and remediation. (Adopted)

$20m Capex to be identified
and decisions tal‹en for 2027 LTP.

will impact the operations of CCO's.
Heritage status of some buildings may constrain perceived opportunities / necessitate prioritisation of investment / delivery in consideration of regulatory requirements.

Addressing seismic issues, carbon emissions reduction and ensuring civic buildings and performance venues are fit for purpose

Do Nothing

2027	NA

Unl‹nown

Unl‹nown

SI‹y Stadium health and Safety

SI‹y Stadium health and Safety
Civic buildings renewals

Basic health and safety improvements to the stadium

Replacement of the stadium Fully fund renewals

2024	2024 —2027	$8.9m

2044	2049	$1b
(unfunded)
2024	2024—34	$44.5m
2034—44	$52.4m
2044—54	$61.8m

Need to ensure alignment with GWRC funding programme. There is a legislative requirement for us to undertal‹e this worl‹ to ensure that the stadium remains safe for public use
Decisions will need to be tal‹en as the stadium reaches end of life.
This is not affordable and does not mal‹e sense when the future of some buildings is uncertain.

Civic buildings renewals

Constrain renewals to 75% of the	2024	2024-34	$33.4m optimum renewal plan. (Adopted)		2034-44	 s39.3m 2044—54	$46.4m

Deferring 25% of renewals does carry some risl‹. It will be managed through prioritisation and ensuring the buildings are compliant and safe for use. This may result in increased in maintenance in outer years. Emergency procurement would cost more.
Potential redevelopment of MOB & CAB means renewals not required. Library and Town Halt won't require renewals due to current redevelopments. City gallery is the l‹ey asset requiring renewal.

Basin reserve renewals

Fully fund renewals

2024	2024—34	$7.7m
2034-44	$11.7m

	2044-54	$1Om		
Basin reserve renewals	For affordabitity, fund renewals at	2024	2024-34	$5.8m	Deferring 25% of renewals does carry some risl‹. It	

Issues

Wellington Venues renewals

Options

75% of unconstrained forecast (Adopted)

Fulty fund renewals

Decision	Delivery	Costs Date	 Timing

2034—44	$8.8m
2044—54	$7.5m

2024	2024—34	$31.4m
2034—44	$64.5m
2044—54	$68.8m

Risks and Implications

will be managed through prioritising safety and compliance. Renewals wilt be prioritised with the Basin Reserve Trust. The most important focus is the turf and irrigation.
This is not affordable and does not mal‹e sense when the future of some buildings is uncertain.

Wellington Venues

For affordabitity, fund renewals at	2024	2024-34	$23.6m

Deferring 25% of renewals does carry some risl‹.

renewals

75% of unconstrained forecast for the first 10 years and focus on only buildings that have a certain future. Bacl‹tog will be addressed in years 11 to 20.
(Adopted)

2034—44	$48.4m
2044—54	$51.6m

This wilt be managed through prioritising safety and compliance for public use, with detailed options analysis for the future scenarios to further inform renewals decisions from year 2. Opera House and Michael Fowler Centre require intervention in the coming years, and we are currently worl‹ing through the options. Bare minimum renewals wilt be applied to l‹eep these facilities functioning.

Social Housing Upgrade Programme

The principal option for this issue is	2024	2024-2036.	$40Om to mal‹e best use of existing by
improving the quality of living standards and undertal‹ing seismic improvements. A business case is underway, this will identify options for investment. (Adopted)

This option meets the requirements of the Crown deed. they risl‹s for delivering the programme in accordance with the Deed requirements are: Seismic performance - one of the requirements of the Deed is to deliver building to 67%NBS. Approximately 50% of the portfolio has had assessments complete. The remaining 50% are scheduled to be complete next year (scope risl‹). Re-housing of Te Toi Mahana tenants, whilst upgrades are complete. This is a l‹ey constraint to the delivery of the programme, therefore the expediency to which the programme can be delivered, therefore cost.

Housing Renewals programme

Fund renewals at 75% of unconstrained forecast for first 10 years to manage affordability in the short term. Increase the funding in years 11-20 to address the gap. (Adopted)

2024—34	$139m
2034—44	$333m
2044—54	$205m

Deferring 25% of renewals does carry some risl‹. This will be managed through prioritising where the greatest need is, such as accessibitity and safety. It may create more vacancies, due to property condition. WCC will incur a fee, where we have to pay the rental cost to Te Toi Mahana.

NOTE: Dollar amounts are indicative for out years and will be refined as more information is available and the implementation period draws closer.

III

		

		

		

		

		

		

Parks & Open Spaces
Strategic direction
Pönel‹e is abundant with varied and rich parl‹s and open spaces that help support Wetlingtonians to enjoy a high quatity of life. Wellington provides a level of service for Parl‹s and Open Spaces that currentty receives strong public satisfaction. Our Waterfront is world class and, in some areas, lil‹e our biodiversity, the city is mal‹ing significant gains and is recognised as the only major city in the world where biodiversity is improving. We base a tot of our marl‹eting and publicity around our Waterfront and biodiversity gains.
Te Whai Oranga Pônel‹e (Open Space and Recreation Strategy) adopted in 2023 has a mission to have "A flourishing networl‹ of parl‹s and recreation opportunities, interwoven into everyday life, which supports Wellingtonians to live well and connect to nature and each other". Open spaces are predominantly unbuitt land that provide opportunities for active and passive recreation and support ecosystems to

thrive. This includes parl‹s and reserves, nature spaces, urban public spaces, streetscapes, coastal areas, cemeteries and urupâ. They contain much of our natural environment such as waterways, forests, shorelines, and native biodiversity.
Some are also equipped with recreation facilities such as playgrounds and sports fields. As the city intensifies, the importance of public open space increases. These spaces can also provide opportunities for climate resilience and adaptation.
The Wellington Central City Green Networl‹ Plan (2022) sets the direction and targets for how we green Wellington’s central city over the next 30 years. With a vision of "thinl‹ing and living green in Wellington Central City, is the future for the planet and all of us", the plan proposes a well-developed continuum of green spaces, to deliver the many ecological, social, economic, cultural and public health benefits to the central city as it grows, enhancing its liveability for residents, worl‹ers and visitors.

Asset overview
Our assets are valued (Optimised Replacement Value) at approximately
$404.3 million as at 30 June 2023 and include:
4305 ha of parl‹s, reserves, and beaches
41.25ha of green space in the central city
211 nature parl‹s
100l‹m of coastline
Wellington Town Best and Outer Green Belt
387I‹m of watI‹ing and biI‹ing tracI‹s
42 coastal structures including boat ramps, wharves, and seawalts
Waterfront public space
Botanical Gardens and Berhampore Nursery
4 cemeteries: Tawa and Bolton Street (closed cemeteries), and l¢arori and Mal‹ara (operationat cemeteries)

2,000 trees in the central city (in the public reatm)
Asset condition and lifecycle
The majority of these assets are in average or better condition. Data confidence overall for this group of assets is "B — High". API building assets condition have been assessed during 2023. Non-building assets are also assessed at regular intervals by WCC staff, as well as more detailed assessments undertal‹en by external partners for complex or critical assets.
Asset data pertaining to the Parl‹s and Open Spaces portfolio is primarily maintained within WCC's Asset Management Information Systems. Building asset information is maintained within SPM, whilst plant and equipment is captured and maintained within TechnotogyOne, WCC's ERP system — as well as being captured spatially.

100

40

20

0

Very Good	Good  - Average	Poor	Very Poor	TBC

How we forecast Asset renewals Renewals of assets within this group of activities are driven from data and is determined by criticality and level of service required, as well as condition, performance and age.
Additional factors such as climate change and seismic resilience are factored into decision mal‹ing alongside the data driven insights.
Detailed lifecycle forecasts are captured and provided in the financial section of the Activity Management plan and summarised in the financial section of this document.

Asset Lifecycle
Component based lifecycle analysis has been undertal‹en for alt portfolios within this activity grouping, with multiple scenarios of

condition rating across the deferrat period.
Reducing funding renewals to 75% could potentially jeopardise service delivery and asset utilisation, leading to increased reactive maintenance needs and affecting tenants or teasehotders, possibly resulting in revenue toss. Moreover, this reduction wilt limit the number of renewals completed annually, with prioritisation based on condition and risl‹ level. Additionally, there are ongoing risl‹s associated with climate change impacts and rising service delivery costs, which could result in diminishing returns over time.
This reduction may also lead to community dissatisfaction due to fewer planned improvements to facilities and services compared to community expectations expressed in

Figure 15: Parl‹s and Open Spaces Asset Condition
Note: This is a listing of ALL Parl‹s, Sport and Recreation assets, except for buildings, aggregated up. (Plus, cemetery and botanical gardens buildings). A few exclusions have been made, being “parl‹ing networl‹” “Stormwater” and “Systems (lighting water and solar systems)”.

renewal investment modelled and compared to an unconstrained expenditure profile to determine associated risl‹ of deferred renewals.

The adopted scenario is based upon funding 75% of predicted renewals in years 2024 to 2033, with any deferred renewals over this period to be funded and spread across years 2034-2043. The level of risl‹ associated with deferrat of these renewals is reasonably tow, with the majority of assets still remaining within an average to very good

recent engagements. There is a risl‹
of gradual asset degradation over time. However, it's important to acl‹nowledge that in some cases, the 75% funding level has resulted in increased investment in renewals, particularly in areas such as parl‹s and open spaces.

Level of service and performance
The council manages a wide range of assets that provide high quality public spaces and nature-based services and experiences to Wetlingtonians. Utilisation and community satisfaction with these services is generally high. The current networl‹ of assets is aging, but still performing well. However, community expectations for quality parl‹s and open space networl‹ are very high and often the level of service sought is higher than what can be provided.
Te Whai Oranga Pônel‹e (the Open Space and Recreation Strategy) and the Green Networl‹ Plan, together provide a frameworI‹ to guide provision and investment decisions in the city's parl‹s and open spaces networl‹.
Renewals are programmed across these assets, but in time, with a growing population and climate change, additional demand will be placed on the infrastructure and the assets and facilities will need to be upgraded.
Parl‹s and open space assets, especially coastal assets, will require more investment as the climate changes, storm events increase, and as sea levels continue to rise. During the period 2024-2027, detailed climate adaptation planning wilt be

conducted for l‹ey parts of the city, and this will help inform investment choices for the 2027 LTP.
Council's role
The Council has a l‹ey role in providing, developing, and managing parl‹s and public open spaces across the city to meet the needs of our community and to protect our natural environment, cultural and historic heritage values. Council manages a variety of parl‹s and open spaces
from highly developed urban parl‹s to relatively unstructured natural areas. Our open spaces also include the tracl‹ networl‹ that connects them.
These spaces, places and connections contribute significantly towards social, economic, environmental, and cultural wellbeing. They are also important to our physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual wellness. These areas are also a critical component of the city's green infrastructure, with opportunities to implement nature-based solutions to flooding and sea level rise challenges.
Our cemeteries also form part of the city's open space networl‹, providing important social, cultural, historic and environmental values. However, they also provide a critical public health and safety role. Cemetery services support the health and safety of the city's communities. Our burial and cremation services reduce

public health and environmentat risl‹s and ensure the Council meets its tegistative and poticy obligations. The Council atso has statutory responsibilities to provide for buriats and currentty operates two cemeteries (l¢arori and Mäl‹ara) for this purpose.
Key challenges
This activity group is affected by four of the identified l‹ey challenges.
Population growth and changing demand — The spatial and district plans set out a significant level of projected growth and housing intensification that wilt create more demand for parl‹s and open spaces in the central city and suburbs. The provision of quality parl‹s and open spaces is a l‹ey part of a liveable, healthy and resilient city. Changing demographics and changing recreation trends mean our open spaces and places will also need to be more accessible, inclusive, and multi-functional to cater for a broader range of users and uses. As a city we have invested in mal‹ing significant gains in our indigenous biodiversity, much of this worl‹ has been undertal‹en in partnership with the community. It will be important to resource existing and future programmes to sustain the biodiversity gains and investment already made.

	Aging and declining condition of infrastructure —Many of our parl‹s and open spaces are aging and require investment to maintain or renew the assets. Examples of assets requiring investment in the short to medium term include central city and neighbourhood parl‹s and open spaces, Mâl‹ara cemetery, the Begonia House in the Botanic Gardens, coastal boat ramps, wharves and seawatts, parts of the tracl‹ networl‹, waterfront public spaces and structures.
Mitigation and adaptation to climate change — Climate change
is leading to an increase in extreme weather events — meaning more extreme storm and rainfall events, tandslips, tree failure, erosion, drought and flooding — which impacts our parl‹s and open space assets and drives maintenance needs and costs up. Warmer, wetter weather is also increasing the need for more pest and weed control and an increased risl‹ in biosecurity incursions. Parl‹s and green spaces can be part of the nature-based solutions to managing floods, coastal inundation, stormwater and to increasing our city's biodiversity.
The 2023 Climate Risl‹ Assessment found 26 l‹ey strategic risl‹s affecting Council assets. Coastal inundation causing asset damage emerged as the most material

physical risl‹ for the Council, with a total rating score double that of the next highest aggregated risl‹ score. Assets identified as being most at risl‹ to coastal inundation from sea level rise include water, drainage and waste assets, Council buildings, parl‹s and reserves, and road assets.
Affordability and detiverability — The cost of maintaining and renewing our parl‹s and opens spaces is getting increasingly expensive due inflationary pressures such as the costs of materials and labour (and responding to the impacts of climate change). This mal‹es it harder and harder to close the gaps in levels of service.
Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “Invest in sustainable, connected and accessible community and recreation facilities.” There is also a strong contribution to “improve the health of our waterways”and “mitigate and adapt to climate change.” We wilt also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.

The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.

	Prioritising growth areas — We have undertal‹en investigation into parl‹s and open space
requirements across the city in response to anticipated population growth and changing demands. Te Whai Oranga Pônel‹e (the Open Space and Recreation Strategy) identifies the importance of well- distributed, multifunctional, and connected spaces, places and programmes that respond to Wellington’s current and future needs. We will prioritise investment as per the prioritised growth areas identified in the Spatial Plan and the District Plan. The Green Networl‹ Plan sets out four targets for the Central City over the next 10 years to comptement growth, especialty of residential units, in the Central City.
Grow our understanding of adaptation impacts and costs — Increased use of water sensitive design and green infrastructure in urban parl‹s, public spaces, and streets can help the city adapt and mitigate the impacts we are til‹ely to see in the future, as climate change teads to more intense/ extreme events. Climate change adaptation planning will help inform future investment decisions, particutarty for assets in coastat locations and identify the ways that nature-based solutions can provide multiple benefits to

the city, including adapting to unavoidable climate change impacts.
Strategic rationalisation to better manage the overall asset portfotios — This mainty applies to our tracl‹s. We have consistently underfunded the upl‹eep of tracl‹s. lt does not mal‹e sense to build new assets when we do not have the funding avaitable to maintain what we currently have. We also need to ensure that the choices we mal‹e will contribute to our community outcomes. Te Whai Oranga Pônel‹e (the Open Space and Recreation Strategy) identifies gaps in service provision and the needs of the community and will guide us in delivering on this priority.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordabitity — This activity will contribute to managing overall rates and borrowing affordabitity by planning for a renewals programme funded at 75% of projected requirement. Assets with the worst condition tevets will be prioritised for investment.

Issues and options
Acquisition of land for neighbourhood parks. open space and recreation to respond to growth and change
Analysis of the suburban open space networl‹ shows that Wellington City underinvests in parl‹s and reserves generally (compared to the region and other large cities around New Zealand) and the quality and provision of neighbourhood parl‹s needs targeted investment to respond to an anticipated period of significant citywide redevelopment and growth (50,000-80,000 more people over the next 30 years).
The success of higher density development is contingent on a range of factors and our community expects that access to quality parl‹s will be part of the core infrastructure investment occurring alongside city growth and change over the long term.

Development of neighbourhood parks and open spaces to respond to growth and change. and gaps in provision
Development of new and the upgrade of existing neighbourhood parl‹s and open spaces to support a networl‹ of well-utilised, accessible, fit-for-purpose parl‹s and recreation opportunities that meet the needs of Wellington’s growing and changing communities and respond to a changing climate.
they barriers to using open spaces include absence of toilets, hard to travel to, feeling unsafe, not accessible, or not feeling welcome. Our existing open space networl‹ needs to be complemented by a networl‹ of quality, easy to access parl‹s that people can use daily.
Implementation of the CentralCity Green Network Plan
The Green Networl‹ Plan sets the direction and targets for the greening of Wellington’s central city in the next 30 years to tal‹e action on the current deficit, provide for growth and to address the climate and ecological emergency declared in 2019.
The Green Networl‹ Plan has set a target of developing 2 new urban parl‹s, improving the greening of 20 existing urban spaces, and no net toss and doubling the number of street trees (to 4000) in the central city in the next 10 years.

Kilbirnie Park
The 2022-23 Annual Plan approved
$5.64m for a destination sl‹ate parl‹ and the 2021-31 LTP identifies an additional $1.5m from the Ptimmer Bequest Fund for open space improvements and $500l‹ for play space renewal.
Investigation and planning worl‹ has been completed over last 18 months. There has been extensive public and stal‹ehotder engagement with a high level of community and stal‹ehotder support for the project.
Subject to LTP funding confirmation and business case approval, design and consenting to be progressed in 2024/25, with construction mid-tate 2025 into 2026.
Investment in our track network There is increasing community demand and expectations for traits investment, including improving the quality, accessibility and resilience of the existing trait networl‹, as well as the development of new trails.
We are currently underfunding our trait renewals. We also have approved plans for new trail development, but these are currently unfunded.
There is a big volunteer contribution to building and maintaining tracl‹s.
Ever increasing community demand for more watI‹ing and biI‹ing traits, increased accessibility, and off-road

commuter traits. The quantum of investment required to address community demand is currently unl‹nown.
Begonia House
Aging facilities, ongoing renewals and asset failures will be costly. This includes the need to replace glazing and structures, climate control systems, improved café l‹itchen and bacl‹ of house facilities, upgrading toilets and hireable spaces.
Renewals of Parks and Open Spaces
Buildings across the portfolio have a recent condition assessment. The current renewal requirements are substantial and cannot be fully funded if the Council is to operate within the limits identified in the Financial Strategy.
Cemetery
Open spaces
Outdoor sports facilities
Play spaces

Issues

Options

Decision	Delivery Timing	Costs Date

Risks and Implications

Acquisition of land for neighbourhood parks, open

Acquire land for parl‹s,	2024	Annual budget	 $215m over 30 open space and			years

Difficult to acquire land, especially in a competitive open marl‹et. Most land

space and recreation to respond to growth and change

Acquisition of land for neighbourhood parks, open space and recreation to respond to growth and change

recreation needs to respond to growth and intensification and address neighbourhood parl‹ provision gaps.
Delay acquisition of land	2024	2030 - 2034
to later years and prioritise high growth areas. (Adopted)

(Approx $7-8m annually)

$21.5m

acquisition for parl‹s and reserves is currently debt funded at the time of purchase. This investment would provide a specific budget for reserve land acquisition. Capacity to deliver is a risl‹ — would need to scale up to manage and deliver Require resourcing for planning worl‹ to develop an acquisition programme.
Delaying, but planning to invest in the mid-term is the best option in the current funding environment.
Risl‹s:
Difficult to respond to land acquisition opportunities as and when they come up. Any acquisition ahead of this time frame would require debt funding.
Cost of land lil‹ety to increase over time.
Decreasing levels of service and increasing community dissatisfaction if there is inadequate investment.

Development of neighbourhood parks and open spaces to respond to growth and change, and gaps in provision

File service level gaps and	2024	Annual budget	 $34m over 30 address growth and			years
change

Capacity to deliver —would need to scale up to manage and deliver an open space development programme.
Requires resource for planning, investigation and design worl‹. The development of new parl‹s and open spaces will be contingent on the acquisition of land.

Development of neighbourhood parks and open spaces to respond to growth and change, and gaps in provision

Delay filling gaps in provision to later years and prioritise high growth areas (Adopted).

2024	2030 to 2034	$13m capex
$3.8m opex

Delaying, but planning to invest in the mid-term is the best option in this funding environment.
Decreasing levels of service and increasing community dissatisfaction if inadequate investment.

Issues

Options	Decision
Date

Delivery Timing	Costs

Risks and Implications
The development of new parl‹s and open spaces will be contingent on acquisition of land.

Implementation of the Central City Green Network Plan

Improve existing central	2024 city green spaces and
parl‹s and develop 2 new green spaces to provide for projected residential population growth — includes land acquisition. Fredericl‹ Street parl‹ is expected to be delivered 25/26

2024 to 2034

Capex
$18.9M
Opex
$1.8M (for 1000 street trees in years 1-3).

There is a deficit of green space in the central city for current users and residents.
Greater numbers of people living and visiting the central city will increase demand for quality green public spaces within the built environment.
Ensure the city continues to build on its liveability, sustainability and ’eco- credentials’.

Suburban Centres Upgrade Programme
Public spaces and centres
development

Prioritisation of the implementation of the SuburbanCentres upgrades programme — one town or suburban centre every two years. (Adopted)

2024

2024 to 2034

$10m over 10 years (for upgrades)
$2.5m opex over 10 years

Suburban Centres Upgrade Programme
Public spaces and centres
development

Defer suburban upgrades	2024 programme 5 years

2030—2040

$10m over 10 years (for upgrades)
$2.5m opex

Park upgrade projects Kilbirnie Park

Development of destination sl‹ate parl‹, refreshed play space and open space improvements (planting, landscaping, public access)

2022

2024/25
Master plan developed 2023
Design and consenting 2023/24 to
2024/25.
Construction estimated to begin mid-tate 2025

$5.45M for destination sl‹ate parl‹
$1.5m open space (Plimmer Bequest)
$0.5m play space
renewal

l¢itbirnie Parl‹ is a significant community asset and requires investment to address safety, accessibility and amenity issues alongside provision for sl‹ate and play.

Issues
Park upgrade projects Kilbirnie Park

Grenada North Park

Te Aro Park

Improvements to Waterfront public safety
A programme of worl‹ is underway to address concerns about public safety on the waterfront. A l‹ey

Options	Decision
Date
Rephase development of	2024 destination sl‹ate parl‹,
refreshed play space and open space improvements (planting, landscaping, public access)
(Adopted)
Develop Grenada North	2021-31
Parl‹ as a multi-function	LTP community sports and
active recreation hub to respond to growth and sportsfield demand.

Redevelop Te Aro Parl‹	2024
and adjacent section of Dixon Street to improve function as a central city parl‹ and give effect to mana whenua aspirations

Invest in safety features	2024
along the waterfront

Delivery Timing
2024/25—2025—26

2024 to 2028
Planning & investigation 2023/24 — 2024/25
Delivery commence
2025/26

2022—2026
Co-design and concept development 2022—2024.
Delivery 2025-
2026.

2024—2028

COStS

$5.45M for destination sl‹ate parl‹
$1.5m open space (Plimmer Bequest)
$0.5m play space
renewal
$14 million
(capex)

$3.1M (funding in LTP for partial upgrade)
$11m (expected cost for full redevelopment)

$7m

Risks and Implications
l¢itbirnie Parl‹ is a significant community asset and requires investment to address safety, accessibility and amenity issues alongside provision for sl‹ate and play.

Grenada North and surrounding suburbs are growing, and investment is needed to provide appropriate sports and recreation facilities.
The existing Grenada North Parl‹ sportsfietds are not fit-for-purpose with significant drainage issues throughout winter. Extensive earthworl‹s and drainage upgrades are required to mal‹e the parl‹ a year-round playing venue.
Installation of artificial turf would greatly enhance utilisation of the fields.
There is currently $3.1m CAPEX allocated to this project, not enough to implement a full redevelopment.
The project and draft concept plan have been co-designed and have support from mana whenua.
Current issues with Te Aro Parl‹ include H&S issue of slippery tiles, no remaining replacement ceramic tiles, water features and lighting not functioning properly and requiring a lot of maintenance.
Additional capital pressure for waterfront edge protection and seawatls.

						

						

Issues

Options	Decision	Delivery Timing	Costs Date

Risks and Implications

Cemetery capacity reaching its limits
l¢arori Cemetery has effectively reached its capacity. Mâl‹ara Cemetery will be reaching its capacity for various types of interment from 2038 and some denominational areas will reach capacity much sooner. We need to acquire land and develop it for cemetery purposes. Last LTP the Council approved the expansion of the cemetery.

Acquire land and develop	2021 for cemetery purposes

2024 —2028

$1.54m land acquisition
$5.416m
cemetery development

Council has statutory obligations to provide for burials.
Burial and cremation services reduce public health and environmental risl‹s.
There is an urgent need to provide more cemetery land capacity in order to adequately cater for future burial and ash interment needs.
The planned expansion of Mäl‹ara cemetery will provide capacity for buriats for a further 40 years (approx.).

Begonia House

Begonia House

Demotish Begonia House	2024	2024-2025

Renew all end-of-life	2024	2024-2028
aspects (Do minimum)

$3m

$7m

Do nothing option results in a health and safety hazard, so Begonia House would have to be closed. Therefore, the demolish option is the base option. It results in a reduced level of service for the visitor experience and heritage value, as well as loss of jobs and revenue.
Do minimum results in maintaining facilities and meeting legislative

(Adopted — for urgent maintenance and renewals)				requirements with temporary buildings for staff facilities and maintains current levels of service which do not meet inclusion and accessibility requirements and are tess efficient to operate.	
Begonia House	Basic upgrade Begonia	2024	2024-2028	$17.5m	Buildings are demolished and replaced,	
House				new staff facilities and improved HVAC,	
	greenhouse, events area, café and	
	l‹itchen. Double glazing. Climate control	
	is economically and environmentally	
	efficient. Addresses safety and structure	
	integrity. Increases potential for year-	
	round usage. Does not address	
	accessibility and inclusion.	

						

		

			

			

			

			

			

			

Community and recreation facilities
Strategic direction	poots and recreation centres in
Community facilities are a core part	IE'  E'
of our city's social infrastructure —	 Together, Te Whai Oranga Pönel‹e providing places where people can	 and the Community Facilities Plan connect, participate, play, create,	 provide guidance for how future perform, be inspired, build weltbeing,	 investment decisions will be made to and develop a sense of betonging and	ensure our facilities and assets purpose. We have 277 facilities,	 continue to support quality service including tibraries, community	 provision to our communities into centres, recreation centres, pools,	 the future.
community and recreation leases of

7 swimming pools (inctuding two outdoor poots)
12 tibraries
5 recreation centres, including Àl‹au Tangi
25 community centres
131 lease facilities across approximately 177,000 sqm of lease space (including land)
1 marae

item identified to occur over the LTP period.
The condition of assets within the built portfolio is primarily within the average to very good range, with less than 5% of assets being rated as poor to very poor. Built assets within the Marina are good to very good, however 25% of assets within this grouping are average or worse. The condition of both building and non-

land and buildings, community spaces in Council housing assets and public toitets.
The Council's Te Awe Map.aL	e
Community Facilities Plan (refer to
for more detail) guides our provision and decision-mal‹ing about community facilities for the next 30 years. lt inctudes 58 prioritised actions and provides the frameworl‹ to ensure we have thriving and accessible community facilities — where people connect, have fun, and belong.
In addition to Te Awe Mâpara, Te Whai Oranga Pönel‹e (the Open Space and Recredtion Strategy) provides an overarching frameworl‹ and strategic direction for Council to manage public open space, recreation facilities and recreation programmes and services over the next 30 years. The strategy includes the provision of

Asset overview
Our assets are valued (Optimised Replacement Value) at approximately
$852.2 million as at 30 June 2023 and include but are not limited to:
44 naturat and 11 artificiat sports turf's
108 playgrounds
BerhamporeGotfCourse
croquet facilities, tennis, netball, and basl‹etbatl half courts
7 Sl‹ate parl‹s
Clyde Quay Boat Harbour and Evans Bay Marina
The Council’s community facility portfolio is based on a current value of $420 million. There are a total of 277 facilities in 282 buildings (some facilities are based in multiple buildings) including:

13 community spaces in Council housing assets
83 public toilets.
Asset condition and lifecycle
Data confidence overall for this group of assets is "A — Very High". API buildings in this grouping have been assessed through a comprehensive condition assessment survey undertal‹en in 2023. Additional to the below graphed groupings are non- building assets including playground and sports fields, playgrounds, sl‹ate parl‹s and plant and equipment at specialised sites such as pools. The data confidence for these are also "A

— Very High". WCC undertal‹e regular condition assessments and inspections of these assets, with the majority of these being assessed within the last 3 years. Systemised capture of complex plant and equipment is an improvement plan

building assets within the grouping are detailed fully within their respective AMP's.
Asset data pertaining both to the buildings, as well as non-building assets is maintained within WCC's Asset Management Systems. Building data has been aggregated into common groupings based the primary services they deliver across the networl‹. Alongside this asset data, centralised repositories detailing factors such as heritage listings and earthqual‹e prone buildings is maintained and factored into and underpins any lifecycle forecasting and renewal planning decisions. Detailed assessment information is also held on plant and equipment and infrastructure assets within the portfolio — such as wharves and pipings at marinas.

•a

Figure 18: Community and recreation Facilities 20 Year Asset Lifecycle Analysis - 75% Constrained Expenditure

c., g°ps in the provision of indoor

recreation and some aquatic
" "		services, geographically the city is well covered, but it is the design, size and quality of facilities impacting the ability to meet needs, now and as the city grows.
Wetlingtonians are calling for better quality and a wider range of offerings, not necessarily more facilities.
A l‹ey level of service gap is for alt new buildings and existing facilities

contribute to the maintenance of public health and wetlbeing, and the private sector does not always provide public conveniences to the required levet and/or quantity. We recognise that clean, well-maintained public toitets that are accessible,
safe, and strategicalty situated are an important amenity that support people to tive, worl‹ and play in Pönel‹e.
Key challenges

Application of the 75% funding is manageable with minimal risl‹. We will be l‹eeping Community Facilities renewals to a bare minimum while

Some of our facilities are however starting to age — the average age of our community facilities is 58 years — and this means that some of the

to meet accessibility codes. We do not yet have data on this.
Council's role

This activity group is affected by alt the identified l‹ey challenges.
Population growth and changing demand — Many of our community

the investigations as per the Community Facilities Plan tal‹e place. The focus will be on safety and compliance.
Level of service and performance
Council provides a very wide range of assets and facilities to support its community and recreation services. The services delivered through our facilities generally have high user satisfaction (libraries 85%, community centres and halt 85%) and high community utilisation.
Cleanliness, smelt and maintenance of public toilets are the most significant areas of dissatisfaction.

facilities are no longer fit for purpose and/or meet community expectations. We have an over provision in facilities, mainly because of the age and smaller centres The
only identified networl‹ gaps relate to recreation centre provision and specific aquatic facilities for play and hydrotherapy.
Through our city-wide needs analysis, we found that Wellington has a substantiat number of community facilities, but many are smalt, ageing and not fit-for- purpose. Some facilities are not futly accessible, and many do not reflect te ao Mäori. There is an uneven distribution of facilities leading to overlapping catchments, dituting

The Council provides community	facilities are small, single purpose facilities, programmes, and	or stand-alone, and not fit-for-
experiences to encourage	 purpose. Our analysis found there participation in recreational, cultural,	 is little collaboration across creative, social, and learning	 facilities, even when buildings are opportunities. The physical spaces —	 situated close to each other. There or facilities — are the platform for	is also an uneven distribution of community development,	 facilities contributes to connection, activities, and services to	 overlapping catchments, spreading tal‹e place. We l‹now these	 demand between some facilities. opportunities and connections	Together these challenges result contribute significantly to our	 in bacl‹ of flexibility to cater for physical, mental, social, emotional,	 changing demand, increased user and spiritual wellness.	 dissatisfaction and tow use of Wetlingtonians are highly engaged	 facilities, and high maintenance and realty value community facilities,	 and operating costs. To
and there is some concern about	 accommodate anticipated demand closing facilities due to the potential	and changing community needs, impact on communities.	 we need better facilities, not more.

demand, and contributing to low use of some facilities. Besides identified

The Council currentty owns a large portfolio of public toitets as they

Geographicatly the city is well
covered, but it is the design, size,

quality and how we deliver our recreation and community facilities of facilities impacting the ability to meet needs, now and as the city grows. The exception to this is identified gaps in the provision of indoor recreation and some aquatic services, particularly pool play spaces, and hydrotherapy facilities.
Aging and declining condition of infrastructure —The average age of our facilities is 58 years, which contributes to deteriorating condition and appeal, and increasing maintenance and operational costs. For older facilities, the design may not be suitable for current needs, and not meet modern standard to be accessible, inclusive, or sustainable. With an ageing networl‹ of facilities, there is a Not to do. The Council has many priorities and we do not have the funding to do it alt at once. We therefore need to carefully evolve, by being smarter and maximising the benefits of our facilities and investment. Te Awe Mâpara highlights our three oldest pools are reaching the end of their useful lives and have issues with accessibility, fit for purpose, earthqual‹e prone and impacts of flooding and sea level rise.
Mitigation and adaptation to climate change — Climate change is placing increased pressures on all

our facilities, some facilities have been impacted by extreme weather events, it is til‹ety these will be impacted again and more severely. In responding to climate change, we also need to reduce carbon emissions. Our swimming pools contribute to about 45% of the Council’s entire building carbon emissions. We need to ensure our buildings are energy efficient and have a low carbon profile, with a focus on moving away from fossil fuels to electricity. Sea level rise and more frequent severe weather events causing flooding are having impact on some of our community facilities, particularly some of our pools.
Earthqual‹e hazards and earthqual‹e prone buildings —10% of our community centres, pools, recreation centres and libraries are seismicatly vulnerable, as well as other community facilities in the networl‹. Some are in locations prone to liquefaction, tsunami, and earthqual‹es.
Affordability and detiverability — Over the last seven years there has been a 45% increase in operating costs of community facilities, driven by inflation, decreased revenue (over the period of the Covid-19 pandemic), insurance and utility increases significantly above inflation, and increasing

maintenance and delivery costs. The cost of maintaining and upgrading our community facilities is continuing to rise due to the number and age of the facilities as well as inflationary pressures such as the costs of materials and labour. We need to apply consistent criteria to determine our priorities and ensure investment delivers the greatest benefits against the outcomes we want to achieve.
Principal options
This activity and related solutions primarily contribute to the priority “Invest in sustainable, connected and accessible community and recreation facilities.”We wilt also tal‹e every opportunity to apply each of the strategic approaches.
The following shows how we have used the strategic priorities and applied the overarching principal options to identify specific options to address the l‹ey issues for this activity group.
Prioritising growth areas — We wilt prioritise undertal‹ing the investigations into local area needs first to enable better long-term planning. Any infrastructure delivery wilt be prioritised according to the spatial plan priority areas in conjunction with the prioritisation criteria set out in the Community Facilities Plan.

Targeting emissions reductions to the greatest gains and operational efficiency — Council's Decarbonisation Plan outlines a programme to move away from the use of natural gas and improve the energy efficiency of many of Council's buildings including community facilities. The greatest emissions reduction gains wilt come from degasification of the pools. This change will also result in operational cost savings as the cost of natural gas continues to significantly increase and is projected to do so in the future.
Mitigating ctimate change and grow our understanding of adaptation impacts and costs — Some of the Council's poots and marinas are l‹ey assets in this activity area affected by the impacts of ctimate change, inctuding sea level rise. Ctimate change adaptation planning will help inform future investment decisions, particutarty for assets in coastat locations. Future community leases and renewals will tal‹e into account any impact of ctimate change and adaptation requirements.
Strategic rationalisation to better manage the overall asset portfotios — In addition to the outcomes sought by the Community Facilities Plan and Te Whai Oranga Pônel‹e, strategic

rationalisation wilt be a l‹ey factor for consideration in the investigations of each area's needs.
Prioritising interventions and the worl‹ programme for affordability — Community and recreation

facilities are expensive to build and maintain. Over the last seven years there has been a 45% increase in operating costs, driven by inflation, decreased revenue (over the period of the Covid-19 pandemic), and increasing maintenance and delivery costs.

Managing demand and optimising levels of service will be a l‹ey consideration in the investigation and activity management of community facilities and services. We wilt follow a robust process to worl‹ with the community, understand needs, test all options,

determine the best response, and prepare a business case to provide clear justification for any investment to change a community facility.

Issues and options
A summary of the detailed list of issues is provided in the appendix. Issues	Options	Decision Date

Delivery	Costs
Timing

Risks and Implications

Addressing ability to meet

Undertal‹e

There wilt be rolling	Opex	Opex

Note that the costs for physical worl‹s are

changing demands, accessibility and inclusion

Central Wellington Pool

investigations as per the Community Facilities Plan

Undertal‹e a detailed

decisions to be made as each investigation is completed

Worl‹ to be

2024—27	$8801‹
2027—30	$5851‹
2030—34	$3851‹
2034—44	$2601‹
Capex	Capex
2024—27	$4001‹
2027—30	$11 m
2030—34	$101.5 m
2034—44	$134 m
2044—54	$73.5 m
Opex

unl‹nown until such time that these 44 investigations have been carried out in partnership with community.
Indicative capex costs for any physical worl‹s associated with alt the 44 delivery and facility investigations could be between $250m through to $530m over 30 years.

Significant capex wilt be required. Retention of

Provision (Freyberg, Thorndon & l¢handaltah)

Central Wellington Pool Provision (Freyberg, Thorndon & l¢handaltah)

needs assessment and feasibility study as per Community Facilities Plan (Adopted)

l¢handaltah Pool redevelopment —new pool

completed in first 18	2024—26	1201
months, to allow decisions on these pools to be made as part of the 2027-37 LTP
2024	2021-31	Capex
$11.7m
Ongoing	Opex
$1.1 m p.a.

existing facilities is estimated to be considerably more costly than a new consolidated facility.
It is noted there is a lot of community attachment to each of the existing pools.

The $11.7m cost of the pool is significant for the potential pool size (25m x 7.5m) and it comes with significant site constraints. The cost of
$62,400 per square metre of water space is approximately three times more expensive than two recent indoor pool developments (Stratford

Issues

Options

Decision Date

Delivery	Costs
Timing

Risks and Implications
Aquatic Centre and Hawl‹e’s Bay Aquatic Centre). Indoor pools generally have a much higher cost than outdoor pools, due to the cost of building fabric, protective coatings, vapour barriers and the need for mechanical ventilation. The high build cost, reduced pool size, and other site constraints, including limited parl‹ing, are anticipated to result in a low value outcome for the level of investment, with a potential increase in ratepayer subsidy per swim from $25 per swim (in the 2022/23 year) to approximately $60 to
$80. In 2022/23 the ratepayer subsidy per swim across all pools averaged $22.

Central Wellington Pool Provision (Freyberg, Thorndon & l¢handaltah)

Close the pool, landscape the site (preferred)

2024	2021-31	Capex
$4.5m
Ongoing	Opex
$0.34m p.a.

The landscape option would restore the stream channel, improve flooding mitigation, and create a new entranceway into l¢handatlah Parl‹.

Central Wellington Pool Provision (Freyberg, Thorndon & l¢handaltah)

High carbon emission profile of swimming pools

l¢eep l¢handatlah Pool	2024
open for at least 1 year, establish an advisory group, receive engineering review to identify a cheaper fix within $7.5m budget
(Adopted)
Complete degasification	2024
of the 4 identified pools
(Adopted - funding to be allocated from the Climate Resilience Fund of $14m)

2024/25	Capex
$7.5m Opex
$80I‹

2024—34	Capex
$15.5m Opex
$8.4m

This delays the decision on closure of the l¢handattah Pool

The project wilt result in lower costs to run — an average annual operating saving of $1.37m /year. The required energy networl‹ upgrade means a project at Freyberg Pool cannot be completed prior to 2028/29. Any building and plant upgrades for Freyberg Pool wilt be considered as part of Central Wellington swimming pool provision.

High carbon emission profile of swimming pools

Defer (Although the	2027
Council would prefer to do degasification, the

TBC

TBC

There is a lil‹ely ETS liability of $344l‹/year by 2023 increasing to $574l‹/year by 2050.

Issues

Options
decision has been tal‹en to do nothing for affordability reasons at this time, to be revisited in future LTPs)

Decision Date

Delivery	Costs
Timing

Risks and Implications

Addressing deteriorating condition and appeal of facilities
Renewals includes:
Libraries
Community and childcare centre
Community halts
Pools and recreation
facilities
Public toilets

Fully fund renewals	Every 3 years

Fund renewals at 75% for 10 years, then increase to 125% in years 10 to 30 (Adopted)

Reduce levels of service

2024—34	Capex
2034—44	$60.5m
2044—54	$137.3m
$148.6m

Deferring 25% of renewals does carry some risl‹. This wilt be managed through prioritising where the greatest need is, to meet the objectives of the Community Facilities Plan. The focus will be on safe and compliance buildings. But we will be l‹eeping renewals to a minimum on buildings that are subject to review before the outcome is identified. However, in the longer term it may result in increased maintenance in outer years.
Increases operational risl‹.

Evans Bay Marina
Evans Bay marina has significant performance challenges. Some short-term renewal investment wilt continue to be needed until future options are decided. The Evans Bay Marina requires a considerable upgrade due to its age, and sea level rise. The operational model for this also needs to be reviewed and a decision about whether we retain this into
the long term wilt need to be made. Decision required 2027.

Pause and reset — undertal‹e a section 17a review to determine long term future in time for the 2027 LTP, including consideration of full upgrade of Marina, demolish and repurpose coastal area.

2027

2027 —
2031

$15m

Requires investment until long term decisions made.
Undertal‹e a staged upgrade to spread financial risl‹.
Heightened risl‹s to reputation if Marina is demolished.
High ongoing costs to l‹eep marina functional, not allowing for sea-level rise and risl‹ of asset failure.

						

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Appendix 2 - Summary of community facilities issues
The full plan can be found online here: www.letstalk.wellington.govt.nz/wellin gtons-community-facilities
Ability to meet changing
demands
We have substantial provision of community facilities in Wellington, not including public toilets we have about one facility per thousand people and 1.2 sqm per person.
Most of the facilities are small, stand-alone, and single purpose. Excluding a few very large facilities, bil‹e Al‹au Tangi and the Wellington
Regional Aquatic Centre (WRAC), the average size of alt community facilities is 524 sqm. Small and older facilities do not cater for the range of current community needs or provide flexibility for changing needs and aspirations.
A l‹ey finding is community facilities that may have been perfect 50 years ago, are no longer fit-for-purpose for today and the future.

Geographicalty we have enough facilities to serve the city, however the foltowing gaps exist:
Recreation centres: thèse facilities are under pressure and there is an indicative geographic gap around Tal‹apû/Northern and Wharangi/Western area.
Swimming pools: we do not have enough play or hydrotherapy water in our networl‹ and there are potential geographic gaps in tearn to swim provision.
Public toilets: there may be geographic gaps in the City Centre, and at some community neighbourhood parl‹s and beach areas.
Wellington does not need more, but better community facitity provision. We need to worl‹ with the community to mal‹e careful decisions about future provision. Investment will be needed to address the identified challenges and to deliver thriving and accessible community facilities, where people connect, have fun, and betong.
Accessibility and inclusivity of
community facilities

In Pönel‹e there are many different communities with diverse interests, needs and aspirations for community facilities. Our analysis found across the 49 tibraries, community centres, recreation centres and swimming

poots, there are a range of fit-for- purpose issues inctuding:
75% of facilities do not reftect matauranga Maori or te ao Maori, with minimal or no te reo signage or visibitity of Maori narratives, identities, histories, or tandmarl‹s.
44% of facilities have poor accessibility into or through the spaces.
38% of facilities are not inclusive for diverse needs, such as gender- neutral toilets, baby changing / parenting facilities and tow sensory spaces.
15% of facilities have aspects which are unsafe for users or staff.
The functionality of community facilities for art and creative activities is a significant limitation identified by both users and facility providers.
Investigations will be done in partnership with mana whenua, Mäori, and alt communities to understand the diverse needs and tived experiences of diverse groups.
Deteriorating condition and appeal of facilities
Our analysis found across the 49 libraries, community centres, recreation centres and swimming pools, there were the following quality issues:

	27% of facilities have significant building issues lil‹e teal‹s.
25% of facilities have insufficient capacity (size), 15% are not functional for intended activities and 27% have poor flexibility.
10% of facilities have seismic issues and 13% are in vulnerabte locations for natural hazards.
Using the actions and consistent decision-mal‹ing process set out in Te Awe Mäpara, we will continue to carry out maintenance and improvements to existing facilities to maximise the value of what we have.
We recognise in some situations, where facilities are in deteriorating condition, inaccessible, poorly located, or poor design, the option which provides the greatest value for money may be to divest an existing building and consider alternative options. Given the age of facilities, there may be times when we need to consider divestment, such as:
A building cornes to the end of its usefut life.
Need for a facility diminishes and the building cannot be adapted.
The site where a facility is located is subject to significant resilience risl‹s which cannot be sustainably mitigated.
A lease/licence has expired or terminated, and the building is not fit-for-purpose or needed.

High carbon emission profile of swimming pools
Pools contribute 45% of Council's building carbon emissions. Swimming pools are heated and cooled with gas, and collectively are the Council’s largest user of both gas and electricity.
The decarbonisation of the Council's community facilities, including the pools, is a significant part of the wider Energy Decarbonisation Plan (EDP). Delivering the EDP is critical to reach the 57% 2030 reduction target set out in Te Atal‹ura.
The four pools in scope are: WRAC, l¢eith Spry Pool, Tawa Pool, l¢arori Pool.
Note that as part of decarbonisation, along with switching away from fossil fuels, this programme includes improving the energy efficiency of mechanical plant such as Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems which are critical in the environmental control of pools (i.e. managing the air within a swimming pool complex).
Affordability
Community facilities are expensive to build and maintain. The Council has a community facility portfolio based on a current value of $420 million. The cost of delivery is approximately $64 million for the primary networl‹ of libraries, swimming pools, recreation

centres and community centres. Over the last seven years there has been a 45% increase in operating costs, driven by inflation, decreased revenue (over the period of the Covid-19 pandemic), and increasing maintenance and delivery costs.
The decisions made early in the process have a direct impact on the long-term success of a facility. These decisions include the location, size, design, materials, and assumptions about how the facility wilt be delivered. A robust investigation process ensures alt these aspects are assessed before a decision to invest is made.
In the past some decisions have not always followed a consistent process or been fully informed by evidence, which has resulted in:
Facilities in poor locations or with design deficiencies which impact how easily people can use and access the facilities, and the efficiency of the facility to operate.
Missed opportunities to achieve a holistic networl‹.

Lacl‹ of forward thinI‹ing to achieve the Council’s strategic outcomes bil‹e good urban design and hazard resilience.
Focusing on a building solution when non-building options lil‹e pricing, programming, and marl‹eting may be more beneficial.

		

ahumoni

Stzategy

Wâhanga 3 I Section 3

Rautaki

Kei ténei wâhanga

mätou Rautal‹i Ahumoni, tërâ e noho ana hei tuâpapa l‹i té mâtou mahere ngahuru tau. Isa whai wâhi l‹i ténei l‹o ngâ turaru matua, ngâ popono me ngâ arawâtea, tae atu hol‹i l‹i â mâtou whâl‹inga e hângai ana l‹i ngâ Local Government (Financial Reporting and Prudence) Regulations 2014.

In this section

This section includes the full details of our Financial Strategy that underpins our Long-term Plan. This includes the l‹ey risl‹s, demands and opportunities as well as our Local Government (Financial Reporting and Prudence) Regulations 2014 Disclosures.







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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council

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Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	141

while increasing the demands on the existing networl‹s across the city.

higher capacity public transport and active mode corridors.
To deliver these changes in our

seven times higher than the cost of safeguarding our current and future infrastructure.

renewing, and upgrading the Council's significant portfolio of infrastructure are substantial and

Many infrastructure networl‹s wilt

transport system, considerable	4. Mitigating earthquake (EQ)

have been increasing materially

require more or new investment to support this forecast growth particularly the intensification of existing urban areas and along l‹ey public transport corridors as signalled in the Spatial and Proposed District Plans.
2. The aging and declining condition of our infrastructure portfolio - in particular water and transport networl‹s. The age, condition and performance of our water assets is under significant stress. These assets, which were designed at a time to service a smaller population, less housing and different weather patterns, require significant on-going investment at a scale far greater than in recent years.
Wellington’s topography constrains our ability to add or widen corridors for our transport networl‹. This bacl‹ of capacity shows up as congestion on the roads and creates safety issues, especially for vulnerable road users. To maximise the safety and efficiency of our networl‹, increase the provision of safe convenient and reliable low carbon transport mode options, relocation of some space away from inefficient private vehicle traffic lanes and parl‹ing to

investment will be required for decades, either through government or some other funding mechanism.
3. Mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Much of our infrastructure was planned and built before we considered the impact on carbon emissions. To reach our goal of a 57% reduction in emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero carbon by 2050, we must rethinl‹ and redesign our infrastructure.
Climate change is already affecting New Zealand, impacting its natural environment, economy, and communities. Without proactive adaptation, further climate-related changes are expected to significantly impact our infrastructure. Recent weather events underscore the exposure of Wellington's infrastructure to various climate-related impacts, such as extreme weather events, sea level rise, flooding, coastal inundation, erosion, landslides,
and rising temperatures.
Future costs to the Council for mal‹ing infrastructure more resilient will be material. Estimates indicate that the cost of not tal‹ing action to address climate issues is

hazards, buildings EQ resilience
and insurance cost inflation. Wellington faces threats from earthqual‹es, landslides and the effects of climate change.
Wellington is a hilly city. It has many bridges and retaining walls, and limited access points - these critical tinl‹s must be resilient.
This means ensuring they can withstand the impact of earthqual‹es and other natural disasters, so people can continue to access essential services. To be a seismicatly resilient city, much of our infrastructure needs to be remediated, particularly buildings and facilities. Seismic resilience is also about ensuring safety and access to lifeline services.
Many of the Council's buildings are not earthqual‹e-prone, but some are, and require remediation. This includes a few l‹ey public use buildings. In this environment, insurers are limiting their exposure to the region's hazards by narrowing cover and/or increasing the cost of cover.
5. Affordability, funding and market capacity to deliver the require infrastructure investment programme. The costs associated with maintaining, operating,

since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding tools are limited, and while the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020 (IFFA) provides an ’off balance sheet’ solution not impacting borrowing limits, the costs still fall to the community who themselves are facing cost increases and affordability issues.
Added to this, Civil Contractors New Zealand reported that the civil construction industry face major challenges including greater uncertainty for future projects, attracting and retaining sl‹ilted people, cost escalations and supply chain issues.
Addressing these challenges has been constrained by a recent history of incomplete asset management, data maturity and under investment in asset maintenance and renewals.
Progress has been made to collect more and better information about our assets, particularly our most critical assets. We need to maintain or even increase our investment in this area to ensure we can continue to mal‹e good decisions about when investment in our infrastructure is optimal.

144

The current economic environment
The economic and community operating environment has dramatically changed since the Council prepared its 2021-31 LTP. We are operating in an environment of high inflation, high interest rates and borrowing costs have increased steeply since 2021.
Insurance premiums continue to rise while access to insurance for many of Council's assets is becoming more difficult. Put simply, everything we do is costing more to deliver. While the Council's current financial position is strong with a credit rating of AA+ (negative watch) and total assets of over $10b, the Council is now facing and addressing:
Material near-term cost and affordability challenges; and
Medium to long-term balance sheet and funding constraints.
Day-to-day costs have also had a significant impact on our community. Households are under financial pressure in this economic environment, with Council's main source of income being rates, careful decisions need to be made about what the community can afford.

Review into the Future for Local Government (2023) He pil‹i tûranga,

There is growing community pressure for the Council to tive within its means (i.e., deliver affordable services). Successive years of double- digit rates increases are eroding community perceptions of service affordability and rates increase tolerance —particularly as cost-of- living pressures continue.
In 2007 a Local Government rating inquiry report found that as a rough benchmarl‹, affordability problems could arise where rates exceed 5% of gross household income. Wellington City as a whole remains below this indicative benchmarl‹ level (even when including the proposed sludge levy). However, rates across Wellington City vary greatly and there are suburbs in Wellington where the 5% affordability benchmarl‹ has been reached.
There is no easy solution. High inflation and costs (particularly the cost of borrowing) in the current economic environment is restricting what we can afford to do.
The 2023 Future for Local Government review found that local authorities face significant funding challenges constraining their ability to deliver services to their communities, meaning there is limited capacity or resource to worl‹

he pil‹i l‹ôtul‹u, Wellington: New Zealand.

with communities on more complex challenges. It also noted that the current local government funding and financing system is not sustainable7▸ .
We wilt worl‹ collaboratively with other councils and central government to seel‹ changes to provide a sustainable funding model for local government and support new ways to deliver core services.
For example, supporting the establishment of a new style of regional council-controlled organisation that has the mandate and financial sustainability to ensure the provision of a safe, reliable, quality water service for our communities.
In the meantime, the funding options available to the Council are limited. We must mal‹e careful decisions about what we invest in and when, to provide the required service in the most cost-effective way.

Managing future risk
While we need to thinl‹ about the immediate cost pressures, we also need to mal‹e sure we can respond to future challenges and natural disasters. Our balance sheet currently tacl‹s the resilience to meet possible future events, which we are tool‹ing to address through this financial strategy.
The Wellington region has numerous large l‹nown faults such as the Wellington and Ohariu faults. The 2022 revision of the National Seismic Hazard Model estimates the lil‹elihood of future earthqual‹e shal‹ing hazard to have increased throughout most of the country. Further, recent weather events in New Zealand have highlighted the impact of a changing climate.
If such an event were to occur in Wellington, we need to have the financial capacity to respond accordingly. The Council's current investment portfolio effectively has two main assets (WIAL shares and ground leases) and is highly exposed to disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic or natural disasters.

145

Te urupare i ngâ weroahumoni ote kaunihera
Part 2 - Responding to Council's financial challenges

The Council is committed to	1. Continue to invest in the city but responding to the needs of the		 rephase and reprioritise the capital community and the aspirations for		programme of worl‹s, with a focus the City's future. The budget and		 on completing projects that we investment programme in the 2024-		 have started, tool‹ing after our
34 LTP underpins the vision and the	 existing assets, and meeting nine LTP strategic priorities guiding	regulatory requirements.
the Council's LTP worl‹ programme.	2. Seel‹ opportunities to increase In addition, the development of thit		non-rates revenue and mal‹e
strategy and future financial decision	efficiencies and some reductions in
mal‹ing is informed by the advice of	levels of service to manage the 2023 Citizens' Assembly Pilot	immediate cost pressures.
(the Assembly). Relevant	3. Mal‹e better use of investments to recommendations of the Assembl		better deal with the risl‹s and
are that the LTP, as part of its	external costs pressures more medium-term focus, tool‹ to diversif	effectively. This includes revenue streams, adVOcate to central	diversifying the Council’s
government for legislation changes	 investment portfolio. The Council’s to access alternative revenue	 investment assets are highly streams, considers investments and	concentrated in terms of partnerships to supplement rates	 geography, asset type and
revenue and prioritising capital spend	liquidity.
according to affordabili	4. Lool‹ for long-term solutions for In this environment our ability to		 local government funding and maintain the pace of delivery for our		 financing, including continuing to capital investment programme and		advocate and support change for maintain prudent financial planning		 the establishment of a new style and management is increasingly		of regional council-controlled under pressure. To address these		 organisation that has the mandate challenges, the Council is planning		and financial sustainability to
to:	ensure the provision of a safe,

reliable, quality water service for our communities.
Continued investment
in assets
The IS provides details of the level and timing of investment needed to operate, replace, renew and upgrade existing facilities over the next 30 years.
The Council primarily borrows to pay for the construction/purchase of new assets. These assets generally provide new or enhanced benefits to Wellington for many years.
Borrowing therefore has the advantage of being a cost-effective and equitable way to fund these assets as it spreads the cost of the asset over the future generations of ratepayers who wilt benefit from the use of the asset.
If the capital expenditure relates to the replacement (renewal) of an existing asset, that expenditure will be initially funded by borrowings but be repaid by rating for depreciation over the life of the asset. Any surplus rate funded depreciation, after paying for the replacement of

Council assets, wilt be used to repay borrowings.
The increased investment in infrastructure to provide for growth is proposed to be recovered in part through development contributions. However, the Council also funds growth infrastructure through debt. Over time as new tots are created and new houses and apartments are built across Wellington there wilt also be more properties to share the rates across, reducing the impacts on existing ratepayers.
The Council must operate within its debt covenant levels and therefore there are limitations on the level of investment in assets it can undertal‹e based on the amount it can afford to borrow. The Council borrows from the NZ Local Government Funding Agency, who set a debt to revenue ratio covenant of 280%. The Council has set its own debt to revenue ratio limit at 225%. The Council’s debt to revenue ratio limit has historically included a provision for insurance headroom of $272m. This amount was set in the 2021-31 LTP and reflected the "gap" in insurance coverage available to the Council.

		

The current financial strategy retains the insurance headroom for the ten years of this plan, and reflects the Council's desire to retain borrowing capacity in the case of a shocl‹, particularly until the Council has alternative capacity to respond to such events.
The Council's own limit has been set giving regard to:
The Council having the future cashftows to repay the debt;
The ability of ratepayers to service debt — including both interest and reaments;
Having necessary debt facilities, credit rating and security in place, which is achievabte over the medium to tong-term; and

Maintaining financial headroom to deal with unl‹nown shocl‹s.
In preparing its 2021-31 LTP, the Council was forecasting to breach its debt to revenue limit in the first seven years of the plan. While the Council's actual debt to revenue ratio has not exceeded the 225% limit to date, debt has still increased significantly.
With significant increases in construction costs, the scope of worl‹s being undertal‹en (for example the cost of the Town Hall remediation being significantly higher than planned) and the size of the Council’s capital expenditure programme, the Council is expected to exceed its own debt to revenue limit (including the insurance headroom) in this LTP period.

However, there is a need to manage the costs of the Council’s future capital programme to ensure that debt can be managed, the Council operates within its own debt to revenue limit over the ten years of the plan, and does not breach the debt to revenue covenants set by the NZ Local Government Funding Agency.
Another critical impact of funding capital expenditure through increasing debt, as well as through depreciation funding, is on future operating expenditure (and therefore on future rates). As both our asset base and our level of debt grows, so do operating costs of debt financing and asset management and renewals. These increasing cost pressures include:

	Deliver what is legislativety or contractually required — examples include Phase 2 of the Housing Upgrade Programme, multi-year contracts, earthqual‹e strengthening; and
Invest in areas where there are material infrastructure challenges e.g., three waters.
The remaining capital worl‹s programme has been rephased, reprioritised and rescoped so that it is evenly distributed over the ten years of the plan or beyond and fits within the available budget parameters.

Debt to lnœme Ratio LTP 2DIf-Z1
,

Z5O9$

Z0O98

Increasing interest payments as the debt principal increases
Increasing depreciation as the value of total assets increases
Increasing costs of operating costs such as repairs and maintenance and insurance.
To respond to these pressures the Council has reprioritised and rephased the capital programme using the following principles:

O°Æ

	

2Œ

Radio Limit — Current Oebt ro incarne Ra üo

Complete worl‹s underway - examples include things bil‹e the Town Hall, Te Matapihi Central Library, parl‹ing enforcement technology roll-out etc.

7Œ7

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Growth
Forecasts indicate steadily ageing population and smaller households as family sizes continue to decline. The population is seeing an increasing proportion of people in the 55-to-85- year age bracl‹ets, and the 20-to-30- year age group. There is a decreasing proportion of the population in the under 20-year age bracl‹et and the 30-to-50 age group.
National population projections from the 2013 disability survey indicated a 45% increase in disabled population to 2038 compared with 31% increase in total population. The same survey indicated nearly 60% of people over 65 identified as disabled. Changing demographics affects the range of services we need to provide and demands on networl‹s across the city
— and long-term changes to household size, more intense and

Capital Expenditure
The Council is investing $4.9b in its capital programme over the 10-year period of the 2024-34 Long-term Plan. The below table shows the total cost of capital projects over the 10-year period of the 2024-34 Long- term Plan categorised by type of expenditure.

2024-34 Long-term Plan
Renewals	LOS	Growth	Total
Activity Group	($000s)	($000s)	($000s)	($000s)	
Water supply	168,264	177,164	1,677	347.105	
Wastewater	394,367	482,698	7,729	884.793	
Stormwater	53,014	153.954	1,677	208,646	
Transport	434,038	309.306	400.268	1,143,612	
Other Activity Groups	1,517,703	636,954	158,199	2.312.856	
Total Capital Expenditure	2,567,387	1,760,077	569,551	4.897.014

mixed land uses, and accessibility		 requirements.
The Council is planning to accommodate the growth of the city predominantly through intensification of existing urban areas and along l‹ey public transport corridors as set out in the Spatial Plan and Proposed District Plan. This will require new infrastructure including higher capacity public transport corridors to sustain growth, and existing infrastructure to be upgraded.

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Three waters
While this LTP prioritises investment in water supply to address the number of water leal‹s and the risl‹ of a water shortage, there are a few wastewater and stormwater projects that are not proposed to proceed in the next ten years. The Moa Point and Western Wastewater Treatment Plants require significant renewals as many of these assets are at the end of their useful life. While investment will occur, it is not at the level recommended in advice from Wellington Water, who manage the asset. Funding is included budget to progress concept design of core activity to allow further prioritisation and can be quicl‹ly implemented if failure occurs. Tal‹ing this approach increases the risl‹ that there may be periods of non-compliance with consents, odour issues and impacts to water quality.
Unplanned Events
Unplanned events require earlier than planned investment (e.g., Civil Defence emergencies, natural events, river slips, fire, theft, and safety concerns). These events, if they occur, could result in significant unplanned operating and capital costs. The Council has mitigations that can be executed in the case of such an event. The Council's debt to revenue limit is tower than covenants that would be set through tenders.
Further, the Council currently

maintains insurance headroom of
$272m within its forecasted debt to respond to emergencies such as those caused by natural hazards and extreme weather events.
As part of this LTP the Council is tool‹ing to establish a perpetual investment fund. This fund could provide accessible funding in the event of a natural disaster or unplanned event, if required. Refer to improving balance sheet resilience section below.
Addressing the immediate affordability challenge
Paying for the city's everyday COst
Everyday costs should be paid for from everyday revenues. If we fail to achieve this, the everyday costs are funded by increasing debt. This means existing ratepayers are not paying for some of the services and amenities being provided to them.
Using debt to fund everyday costs also means future ratepayers wilt pay for this cost, including interest. This is neither prudent nor sustainable.
The costs to undertal‹e Council services are higher than previously anticipated. Next year alone, we're forecasting cost increases for depreciation (the cost of lool‹ing

after our existing assets); $26m, interest $11m and inflationary pressures). Operating costs are forecast to be $1.4b by 2033/34, an increase of 75% from the 2023/24 Annual Plan.
To mitigate the increase in everyday costs the individual budgets included in the draft LTP have been
scrutinised and refined. This has been a rigorous process over the last year. The focus has been on ensuring we're delivering core services. For example, we have cut bacl‹ spending on removal of graffiti and events, including the annual fireworl‹s display.

Forecast Operating Expenses
1,600,000
1,400,000
1,200,000

$000's

1,000,000
800,000
600,000
400,000
200,000
-

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20%
16%
12%
8%
4%

Forecast rates increases (after growth) - Average 8%
	18.5%	

13.0%

12.8%
 1.4%

16.9%

11.4%
 1.3%

9.9%
1.1%

13%

5.4%
 0.0%

8.8%

4.6%
0.1%
4.5%

5.3%
0.0%
5.3%

4.0%
0.0%
4.0%

4.1%
0.2%
3.9%

4.8%
0.0%
4.8%

5.4%

10.1%

11.4%

2023/24

2024/25

2025/26

2026/27

2027/28

2028/29

2029/30

2030/31

2031/32

2032/33

2033/34

0%

 Proposed rates increase (after growth)	 Sludge levy	Rates limit

Tō mātou mahere ngahuru tau | Our 10-year Plan 2024–2034	Wellington City Council	150	

	
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









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of investment wealth and reduced reliance on future rates increases
Reduces the Council’s reliance on debt headroom as a way to manage insurance risl‹, which frees up debt capacity for other Council priorities (e.g., capital or infrastructure investments)
The Council wilt also continue worl‹ on the insurance road map and through this worl‹, consider strategic ways to deploy capital to get the best out of available options. These could include exploring new alternative insurance solutions (e.g., parametric insurance, captive insurance), or further changes to the shape of the Council’s asset base. Advocating for change in funding and financing for local government

levy in accordance with the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020 to fund the Moa Point sludge minimisation facility. The Council also supports future change, including the establishment of a new style of regional council-controlled organisation that has the mandate and financial sustainability to ensure the provision of a safe, reliable, quality water service for our communities.
We wilt continue to worl‹ collaboratively with other councils and central government to seel‹ changes to provide a sustainable funding model for focal government and support new ways to deliver core services in the medium to long-term.

The current economic environment has created significant challenges in setting the LTP budgets and balancing the need to invest in the City's infrastructure white still delivering the services Wetlingtonians have come to expect. The infrastructure demands and needs will continue to grow. While, in the future, the economic conditions may improve the funding and financing system for local authorities is not sustainable.
The Council has tal‹en up new financing mechanisms as they have become available, such as setting a

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1,200
1,000

Rates Income $m

800
600
400
200
0
Year
 Quantified limit on rates requirement	 Proposed rates income (at or within limit)  Proposed rates income (exceeds limit)

				

115%

300%

Revenue/operating expenditure (%)

110%

105%

100%

250%

222%

203%

137%

121%

98% 104% 100% 104%

72%

84%

Capital expenditure/depreciation (%)

200%

150%

100%

 239%	

95%

50%

114%

108%

106%

105%

101% 100%

  99%	

99%  98%

98%

98%

90%

    
Year

0%

Year

 Benchmark met	 Benchmark not met	Threshold	 Benchmark met	 Benchmark not met	Threshold

Borrowing costs/revenue (%)

12%
10%
8%

9%	9%  10%  9%	9%

8%

9%

7%

7%

8%

7%

6%
4%
2%
0%

Year

 Benchmark met	 Benchmark not met	Threshold

Absolutely Positively
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