Opponents of Ali Williams, Anna Mowbray helicopter pad welcome Environment Court decision
A lobby group challenging Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray’s helicopter pad in Auckland’s Westmere has welcomed an Environment Court decision.
Quiet Sky Waitematā Inc said the decision in its favour was right, although this is understood to be only the first step.
It thanked 1397 supporters who backed it.
Judge Lauren Semple, with two commissioners, ruled in favour of the group.
“The appeal is allowed in part,” said the May 15 decision.
“The take-off and landing of a helicopter is an activity not provided for within the residential-mixed housing suburban zone of the Auckland Unitary Plan and falls to be determined as a non-complying activity.”
The May 15 ruling is an interim decision about planning and the wording of the Auckland Unitary Plan in relation to helicopters generally.
That is needed before a more substantive appeal can be lodged.
Whether Williams and Mowbray will challenge the May 15 remains unknown.
“I will pass on this,” Williams said when comment was sought from him today.
He has until June 8 to appeal, after winning consent last June.
The lobby group congratulated the court on its interim decision that helicopter take-offs and landings in Auckland’s residential zones were not a permitted activity.
“We agree they are a non-complying activity, and all their effects on a neighbourhood must be considered.
“This overturns the extraordinary decision last year by a panel of independent commissioners, led by Kitt Littlejohn, that helicopters are effectively the same as cars and subject only to noise controls,” the group said.
The Environment Court must now consider all the impacts of helicopter use – public safety and amenity, ecological impact and privatisation of the foreshore, among others, the group said.
“This decision upholds Auckland Council’s interpretation of the Auckland Unitary Plan and will allow it to comprehensively evaluate environmental, landscape, amenity as well as noise effects, in future residential helicopter applications,” Quiet Sky Waitematā said.
“This important milestone marks four years of community opposition to the private helicopter in Westmere.
“[We] want to thank all our supporters, including the 1397 people who submitted against the Rawene Ave application, and especially the more than 200 who felt strongly enough to support [us] financially, enabling us to put the community’s case to the Environment Court.”
The group also thanked legal counsel Gill Chappell, planner Brian Putt, the Herne Bay Residents Association, the Tree Council and Urban Auckland.
“Helicopters are not compatible with urban residential zones and the public should not have to work so hard to point out the obvious,” it said.
“Spending so much time and money on a case-by-case basis is an unacceptable burden on the community.”
Given the significant public opposition to private use of helicopters in residential areas, the group urged Auckland Council to recognise “the clear public feeling on this issue”.
It called on the council to clarify its planning laws immediately and to go one step further with a plan change to prohibit private-use helicopters in Auckland’s residential zones.
On October 2, the group challenged the independent hearing commissioners’ decision.
The commissioners classified helicopter movements in residential areas as a permitted activity under specific noise standards.
“We assert that the application is a non-complying activity under the Auckland Unitary Plan and is not ancillary to residential use. The council planners also agreed and it should be noted," the lobbyists said.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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