Auckland Council botch-up - hundreds to reapply for consents

Wednesday, 29 August 2018, 11:55 am
Article: RNZ

Auckland Council botch-up forces hundreds to reapply for resource consents

Hundreds of Auckland homeowners may have to apply for new resource consents, after the Auckland Council admitted it had misinterpreted its own rules.

Image: Robyn Saul / FreeImages.com

The council said 430 resource consents are affected in suburbs like Grey Lynn and Ponsonby, where special character rules apply.

The council said the consents were granted between December 2016 and December 2017.

The problem arose when the Environment Court disagreed with how the council was applying the extra rules that applied in special character areas.

It said those rules should not take precedence over the underlying zoning rules and both should apply when resource consent applications were considered.

The council said some homeowners may have to make changes to their plans to comply with the new interpretation of the rules.

The owners of up to five properties have been told to stop building work while the issues were sorted out.

The council said it would pay for the new consents and look at compensation in some cases.

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