Last ditch bid to ban new helicopter pads in Auckland

Newsroom

2 days ago

Former All Black Ali Williams' success in winning planning permission for a helicopter pad at his Westmere home is provoking another political showdown on a planning change to ban more of the facilities in residential areas.
Planning commissioners controversially okayed Williams' and his wife Anna Mowbray's application in the face of community opposition. And in doing so they could have made it easier citywide to have helicopter use approved. One community group, Quiet Skies Waitematā, is appealing the commissioners' ruling.
In parallel, Auckland councillor Mike Lee and a councillor challenging Wayne Brown for the mayoralty in October, Kerrin Leoni, will ask colleagues on Thursday to vote for a specific planning change to not only stop any new leniency but to prohibit more landing pads.
If the move succeeds, it would apparently be against the advice of council officers who believe the rules that applied for years before the Williams-Mowbray decision – where pads could be applied for but had to face hearings – remain the best answer.
Should the councillors opt for a ban, Auckland Council would then need to seek an exemption from the resource management minister Chris Bishop to pursue the plan change after he directed councils not to make further changes ahead of new RMA reforms.
The debate at the council's policy and planning committee on Thursday will be heavy with politics given the mayoral and council election is just under three months away.
Lee represents the Waitematā ward of inner-city suburbs and Hauraki Gulf Islands and says the three local boards in his patch back a ban. Leoni is councillor for the Whau ward around the harbour from Westmere and is Brown's highest profile challenger.
A similar move by Lee and Leoni in March 2024 failed by two votes.
Mike Lee, centre, and councillor colleagues at Lee's campaign launch in 2022. Photo: Matthew Scott
Lee told Newsroom he expected the vote 'to be a close-run thing.
'I'm hoping that the proximity of the election might mean councillors who normally vote the way staff advise them to, may be more sensitive, more aware of the depth of feeling out there in the community.'
In his view the planning commissioners' decision to approve the Williams/Mowbray helipad and flights at their Rawene Ave property turns the Auckland Unitary Plan, which since 2016 has been the city's planning bible, into 'a circus'.
In his notice of motion for the meeting, Lee says it 'redefines the activity class for helipads in the Auckland Unitary Plan from non-complying to a permitted activity or at most restricted discretionary – asserting that helicopters, just like automobiles, are a normal means of transport for residents.
'This extraordinary ruling effectively deregulates helipads to exactly the same status as garages or even bike sheds. Consequently, the disappointment and anger of the 1302 residents who submitted against the application [of 1396] will only add to the widespread negative view towards helipads in residential areas and towards the council on whose behalf the decision was made.'
Lee's letter to council chief executive Phil Wilson explaining the notice of motion says residents and campaigners fear the existing 'permissive' approach will be made much worse, with rumoured further helipads being mooted.
'All three local boards concerned, Aotea Great Barrier, Waiheke and Waitematā, represent communities which have been grossly impacted by helicopter landing in built up areas.
'The specific activity class for helipads in the Gulf – 'restricted discretionary' – is as you know very permissive. In this case council has no choice but to process these applications on a non-notified basis,' he writes.
'Not surprisingly as a result there is now an extraordinary number of helipads in the Gulf – 11 on Great Barrier, 64 on Waiheke, with another application in process, and 4 in Waitematā – with rumours of a number of others in the pipeline.
'The effects have not been helped by what has been perceived by neighbours as lax enforcement, with council until recently ignoring the latest national noise standards for at least 5 years before the committee decision of March 2023 to enforce this 2019 national standard.'
'Despite the advice from officers that the matter of helipads was best left to the consenting process to manage, we now find ourselves in a position where an independent commission has effectively ruled that it's 'helipads for all'.
'They are now to be considered analogous to cars and bikes under the Auckland Unitary Plan. This is clearly a damaging, socially destabilising outcome for the community and the Council, coming just as residents receive their new rates invoices. Even the 'independent commission' is calling for clarity. Clarity is what myself and Councillor Leoni hope to achieve.'
Williams and Mowbray have been approved for up to 10 flights a month, with a maximum of two a day and before 10 pm.