Council wants law change to end heritage ‘nightmare’
The Wellington City Council has asked the Government to make it easier to remove heritage listings from buildings with a simple majority vote.
Mayor Tory Whanau and councillor Ben McNulty penned a letter to Chris Bishop, the Minister Responsible for Resource Management Act Reform, asking the Government to change laws surrounding heritage protections.
The letter pointed out two high-profile examples where the owners had been unable to demolish buildings which required earthquake strengthening: the Wellington Town Hall, owned by the council, and the Gordon Wilson Flats, owned by Victoria University.
The Town Hall could cost $329 million to earthquake strengthen, after which it will not be able to get insurance, while the Gordon Wilson Flats languished for a decade until the council voted to de-list it two weeks ago.
That vote to de-list the “eyesore” modernist building, alongside nine other buildings where the owners had asked for their heritage listings to be removed, would not normally be possible.
There can be no appeal because the decision was made under the fasttracked process to implement housing intensification policies.
Under the usual process, buildings can be reinstated to the heritage list by the Environment Court, even if councillors have agreed to remove them.
The council had previously voted to de-list the Gordon Wilson Flats in 2016 but the decision was later overturned by the Environment Court.
With sea walls and the Karori Tunnel also on the heritage list, the listings were “adding considerable expense and difficulty” for the city and its plans for the future, the letter from Whanau and McNulty says.
“This situation is mirrored in regions and cities across New Zealand where the decisions made by previous generations of heritage advocates are resulting in expensive legacy issues.”
The letter, sent on behalf of the council, asks the minister to give councils the power to remove a heritage listing from the national, Heritage NZ-managed list as well as the council’s own list.
That would ensure the decision was made by the elected body, accountable to the public and subject to consultation, “rather than in the hands of officials and courts”.
Heritage New Zealand – Pouhere Taonga, the agency tasked with protecting New Zealand’s heritage sites, declined to comment on the letter.
Bishop said the letter from Wellington would be considered as part of the changes to the Resource Management Act this year.
“I will wait for advice on this but I can say generally, my view is that Wellington can’t and shouldn’t be a museum. It has to change, grow, and adapt into a thriving liveable city,” he said.
McNulty said that for some owners of heritage properties, de-listing was “the end of a nightmare that has lasted for years”.
“This simply shouldn’t be the case. This is why we have asked the minister to consider giving local authorities the ability to de-list heritage properties by a council decision.”
Whanau said there were cases around the city where heritage restrictions served no-one. They had “placed unreasonable costs on owners, preventing earthquake strengthening work and resulting in emptying and decaying buildings”.
“I want to see a more pragmatic approach that gives councils flexibility around heritage protection so we can work with owners to get on with much needed development work in our city. As mayor, my priority is people, not the past.”
Two of Wellington’s heritage buildings burned down in suspicious circumstances last year, the Toomath’s building and the sawtooth building at Shelly Bay.