Ali Williams, Anna Mowbray’s Westmere helipad plan faces further court battle
The full case against Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray over their Auckland helipad consent is yet to be heard, with only an interim Environment Court decision out so far.
“It’s far from over,” said one opponent after the May 15 decision backed opponents and lobby group Quiet Sky Waitematā.
The interim decision was “all about the Auckland Unitary Plan, nothing to do with the Westmere property in particular at this stage”, the opponent said.
Judge Lauren Semple, with two commissioners, ruled in favour of the group in her interim ruling.
“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,” it said.
The lobby group does not yet have a date for the next court case, one member said.
But that will hear the appeal specifically for and against consent granted by commissioners last year for the Rawene Ave, Westmere home of Williams and Mowbray.
“The Environment Court must now consider all the impacts of helicopter use at Rawene Ave in Quiet Sky Waitematā’s current appeal against it: public safety and amenity, ecological impact and privatisation of the foreshore among others,” the group said.
Helicopters were not like cars, opponents said.
“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 May 15 court decision harked back to last June’s approval of the helipad.
A three-person independent hearing panel heard and determined the application, finding that the use of a helicopter for property access was an activity “inherently associated” with a residential purpose.
Having a helicopter land and take off was a permitted activity in the mixed housing zone, provided it could comply with any applicable standards, the commissioners found last year.
Therefore, the exceeding of noise standards was the only basis for a resource consent being required.
That panel then approved the helipad, subject to conditions, taking into consideration a marginal degree of non-compliance.
The lobby group challenged that, saying the panel’s decision incorrectly classified helicopter movements as a permitted activity.
Commissioners allowed two flights per day and 10 flights per month from the couple’s property overlooking the picturesque Waitematā Harbour.
The commissioners concluded that operating a helicopter in residential zones is a permitted activity in the Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP) and inherently associated with residential land use.
Waitematā and Gulf ward councillor Mike Lee thanked the lobby group and residents in Westmere and Grey Lynn who had paid the substantial legal costs of getting the interim decision.
“As Quite Sky Waitematā says, the real solution is to make landing helicopters in residential areas a prohibited activity, as it is in most first-world cities,” Lee said.
When asked to comment, Williams said: “I will pass on this.”
Mowbray did not respond.
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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