Woman grateful treehouse to be brought up to code

A MOSGIEL woman is ‘‘very grateful’’ a Dunedin city councillor and the local Rotary club will rebuild her noncompliant treehouse to code, free of charge.

This week, national attention was drawn to the city council asking Mosgiel woman Janice NormanOke to tear down a treehouse on her property, saying it breached the Building Act. She called the action ‘‘ridiculous’’. Yesterday the council announced Cr Mike Lord had mustered friends from the Rotary Club of Mosgiel and together with the family would rebuild the treehouse.

Council staff would ensure the rebuilt structure met building regulations.

An anonymous donor offered to pay for extra building materials if needed.

Ms NormanOke said she was ‘‘very happy’’ about the decision.

‘‘I’m very grateful for the assistance. I’m very grateful I’m going to have a compliant tree house.’’

Work was scheduled to start next week.

It would begin with the club discussing the form the work would take, she said.

‘‘We’ve pretty much been told it’ll be the same except it’s going to be a little bit lower so it fits with the building code.’’

The platform of the structure is 2.9m, but railings pushed it over the 3m limit.

The structure was brought to the council’s attention by neighbours concerned about their privacy.

Ms NormanOke said she doubted relations would get better with those neighbours ‘‘because they’re not getting what they wanted’’.

The tree house would still be there. ‘‘I want neighbourhood relations to go back the way they were. I’ll be very happy to be out of the spotlight.’’

Cr Lord said he understood public reaction against the council but said staff had no discretion on the issue as an independently accredited building control authority.

Councils did not make building law and staff had no ability to turn a blind eye to structures that did not meet legal requirements, he said.

‘‘This put them in a horrible position, and I am glad that together we have been able to sort it.’’

The treehouse was built three months ago by Ms NormanOke’s father, Trevor Oke, for her children, Ethan (12), Devon (10) and Logan (6).