Capital landowners lawfully clear native bush without resource consent

Sunday, 14 June 2020

A digger clears a large plot of native bush and gorse in the suburb of Newlands in late May.

A Wellington landowner has been able to legally clear hectares of native bush on their property without needing resource consent from the council.

A neighbour of the Newlands property, north of the capital, says the work amounts to 'wanton destruction' of native flora and fauna, including regenerating bush.

But the Wellington City Council says the work is legal and a permitted activity, and consent for such work may only be needed when a new Significant Natural Areas (SNA) policy is adopted as part of the next District Plan.

The owners of the address in question, 470 Hutt Rd, have not responded to requests for comment.

A neighbour to the property says this vegetation clearance equates to destruction of native flora and fauna.

* Newly-released documents cast new light on Shelly Bay

* Land confiscation claims as councils grapple with biodiversity challenge

The clearance of this bush near Newlands did not require any consent from the city council, in what critics say is a loophole.

Tony Birtwhistle first noticed the clearance of bush on the property, adjacent to his on Dungarvan Rd, about five weeks ago. He said a large digger had been clearing what was 'once a habitat for wildlife'.

Birtwhistle said the current District Plan 'permits the destruction', and means landowners are able to 'exploit' the current lack of resource consent in what he believes is a loophole.

He said the SNA initiative, part of a nationwide Resource Management Act requirement involving all councils, needed to be accelerated.

Until the issue was addressed quicker, the other 1700-odd land areas identified as SNA around Wellington had 'no protection'.

Land which has been cleared on private property in Newlands, Wellington.

Birtwhistle said the current policy had a certain irony to it, in that the city council was simultaneously encouraging children to plant trees. 'It's amoral … [it's] so disappointing.'

City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said that an ecologist and planning staffer visited the Hutt Rd site late last week, and met with one of the members of the family that own the property.

The family representative said the clearance work had been completed. About four hectares of weed, gorse and regenerating native bush were cleared.

There was important vegetation on the rest of the property, which the owner said they wanted to protect, MacLean said.

An examination of aerial imagery indicated the oldest, most mature vegetation on the property was retained.

'The city council can't influence what landowners do or don't do with native vegetation on their property until the Significant Natural Areas/Backyard Taonga Policy has been through the District Plan review process,' MacLean said.

'As part of the Backyard Taonga process we have visited hundreds of landowners in recent months to talk about the upcoming changes … [and] help them protect what they have without getting in the way of day-to-day use of their land.'

But while the council confirmed to Stuff it had meetings with 'most' landowners who had property identified as falling under SNA parameters, it couldn't initially reach of all them - including the owners of the Hutt Rd property.

Wellington Mayor Andy Foster said it had always been the case that there was no requirement to seek resource consent for vegetation clearance on rurally-zoned land.

'Loophole is certainly not the term that you could reasonably use [about the current policy].'

The SNA classification has no statutory effect until the District Plan is notified in early 2022.

As part of a District Plan review later this year, the city council plans to talk to SNA landowners again. Based on their feedback, there could be changes in 2021 to how much people could do to these areas without seeking resource consent first, MacLean said.