Quote of $800,000 to demolish Cambridge Water Tower ‘pretty bananas’

Tuesday, 28 May 2024

It’s an icon in Cambridge but saving the century-old water tower could cost a whopping $6 million.

Another option is demolishing the tower - one of two in NZ and a heritage site - at a cost of $800,000, which a Waipā District councillor called “pretty bananas”.

The two options featured in an Enhanced Annual Plan survey to ratepayers and 223 submitters have spoken - 62% want it gone, while 38% favour restoring it.

Yet many Cambridge residents want a third option: “hand it over to a developer who can turn it into a cafe or a restaurant or housing or whatever that looks like”.

Many councillors, too, want to keep the water tower somehow, and deliberated on its fate last week.

The 19 metre-high Cambridge water tower is on the green belt near the Resthaven retirement village - the council notes potential legal risks if it fell there.

An earthquake assessment in 2014 said the tower met 25% of national building standards (NBS).

Three structural engineers have looked at the building since then and the council now awaits the result of earthquake-prone buildings legislation, currently under review.

It would cost about $150,000 for further investigation - site testing and not a detailed design - by a structural engineer recommended by Heritage New Zealand, Waipā District Council’s property adviser Dustin Mills told councillors.

The quote from another engineer was around $10,000 - a peer review from a second engineer was a must.

Councillor Marcus Gower said while the tower had to come down, the cost to do so was outrageous.

“I know we need resource consent, but $800,000 to bring down a brick water tower is pretty bananas.”

Mills said the actual demolition cost was around $250,000, but resource consent process and the need to engage with a heritage engineer “significantly inflated” costs.

The council faced risks if the tower was not demolished, Mills said.

If the building was to fall on someone in the village next door WorkSafe “may not” press charges against the council, but “there is still the chance that the family of the person affected by that would/could lay charges.”

“Secondly the risk of general failure over and above that of the seismic risks.

“There is ongoing deterioration of the general performance of that tower.”

Cr Clare St Pierre leaned towards giving the tower more time and thought the council could collaborate with the neighbouring Resthaven village.

“Originally they were well away from the tower, but they did build closer and there would be resource consent conditions around that.

“But also a further extension is proposed now and whether or not that might also be an opportunity to collaborate to create a structure that might be slightly connected.”

Mills said the staff had done intensive investigations of options, such as strengthening only halfway up the existing tower for 34% NBS.

“Although the price seemed significantly lower for those options, it would require us to purchase some property from Resthaven next door.

“There's four decent titles within the falls zone of that that we would need to buy out at a fairly substantial cost, so the cost of that option ended up equating to almost the same as the 67% NBS.”

Mayor Susan O’Regan said while the town had grown now, the tower used to signify the start of Cambridge.

“Heritage issues aside, I think it holds a bit of a place in people's hearts.

“It reminds me and them of the good old days, so to speak, when Cambridge started there.”