"The Council has received a large number of calls this week from worried people who live or work in the hundreds of buildings around the city that are still to be quake-strengthened," said Mayor Prendergast.
"Chilling and heartbreaking images" of historic buildings being destroyed during or demolished after the Christchurch quake have raised anxiety levels in Wellington.
Mayor Prendergast said that if Wellington is hit by a similar-sized quake many lives will be at risk, as well as many fantastic old buildings that are the soul of areas like Cuba Street, Courtenay Place and other older suburbs.
The most significant question now facing the city is how to strengthen buildings and retain their heritage without financially crippling building owners or compromising the safety of people in and around old, unfortified buildings.
In 2009, certain provisions in Wellington’s quake-prone policy were relaxed, allowing some building owners 20 years in which to carry out strengthening work.
Building owners had told the Council that it would be impossible for them to pay the potentially huge costs of structural strengthening over the short term.
However Council officers will now be reassessing the quake-prone building policy to see if the programme can be accelerated.
The Council has estimated that about 600 buildings around the city may need strengthening.
