RMA minister rejects Wellington council’s attempt to remove heritage protections from buildings

The RMA Reform Minister has rejected Wellington City Council’s recommendation to remove heritage protections from several buildings.

In March, as part of amendments to the District Plan, the council rejected the recommendations of an Independent Hearing Panel and voted to remove 10 buildings from the heritage list.

Heritage protections were removed from Gordon Wilson Flats, Miramar Gas Tank, Emeny House, Kahn House, Olympus Apartments, Wharenui Apartments, Robert Stout Building, Primitive Methodist Church, Johnsonville Masonic Hall and Star of the Sea Chapel.

However, final approval of the council’s recommendations rested with RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop, who instead sided with the Hearing Panel.

Bishop said the council did not provide sufficient evidence to support its reasons for removing the buildings from the Heritage programme.

“That said, I understand the council’s position regarding the 10 buildings and have received separate correspondence from the mayor regarding how to facilitate the removal from the heritage buildings list,” Bishop said.

“I have already sought advice on this matter and look forward to discussions with her and other councils on the heritage issue and how it impedes development.”

Bishop also sided with the Hearing Panel on the decision to allow building heights of six storeys within a walkable catchment area 10 minutes from Kilbirnie Metropolitan Centre. The council wanted to retain the heights and zoning of the existing notified buildings and instead develop a new plan within a year.

In total, the council submitted 20 alternative recommendations to the minister.

It has agreed to nine of them, including zoning a stretch of Adelaide Road as an inner-city zone (the hearing panel wanted it zoned as a mixed-use zone), classifying the Johnsonville train line as rapid transit and exempting developments of one to three residential units in medium- and high-density residential zones from minimum front and side yard requirements.

“The reasons for accepting these recommendations vary depending on the specific issue, but in general, the council’s recommendations give better effect to the National Policy Statement on Urban Development in that they provide additional capacity for housing and commercial land, will better achieve a well-functioning urban environment, will provide a better competitive development market and facilitate more efficient use of land,” Bishop said.

Bishop said he had received extensive advice from officials and could only take into account issues that the hearing panel could have taken into account when making its recommendations. He said he had not commissioned new tests.

Disappointed mayor

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau was disappointed the minister had not accepted the council’s heritage protection recommendations.

“The problem is that under current law these buildings are considered heritage. However, we recently wrote to the minister to facilitate the exclusion of heritage buildings and he is seeking advice. We will continue to work with him on this,” he said. saying.

Whanau was pleased the minister had accepted nine of the ten alternative zoning recommendations.

“This is a step forward for Wellington and shows the commitment of both local and central government to solving our housing crisis,” he said.

“The city of Wellington is growing and our housing needs to grow with it. We expect between 50,000 and 80,000 more people in the next 30 years. At the very least, everyone in this city deserves a warm, safe and dry place to call home.” .

More to come…