Valuing our city's heritage buildings

Protecting the city's valued heritage features is the goal of North Shore City Council's new guidelines for heritage buildings.

The Good Solutions Guide for Heritage Buildings provides useful guidelines for property owners who are considering altering their heritage property. The guide looks at ways to research their home, explains house styles and suggests appropriate ways of making changes to the property. It recognises local examples of heritage properties that have been added to or altered in a way that complements the character of the house or neighbourhood.

The guide opens "Heritage Buildings are a valued feature in our community, enriching the environment while providing us with links to our past."

North Shore City's strategy and finance committee chairperson, Tony Holman, reinforces the importance of heritage and its contribution to the city's quality environment.

"We are extremely proud of our city's heritage and the story it has to tell. We must cherish this so that it can be enjoyed by our communities, visitors and future generations," he says.

"More and more people appreciate both the historical and economical value of heritage houses. They aren't making any more of them."

Councillor Holman says the guide is meant to encourage and assist people who have heritage homes, and want to carry out work on them.

The council's heritage advisor, Greg Bowron, says the guide recognises people's needs.

"Older houses were not set up for modern living but there are simple ways of meeting today's standards while preserving their heritage qualities," he says.

"The guide shows practical ways of dealing with these issues and uses graphics and photographs to illustrate them."

The Good Solutions Guide for Heritage Buildings is a non-statutory document that offers best practice ways of altering heritage houses. It should be used in conjunction with another council brochure "Valuing our built heritage: making changes to heritage buildings in North Shore City" which discusses the city's District Plan requirements and provides advice about making resource consent applications for restoring, altering or removing heritage buildings.

For more information or a copy of the Good Solutions Guide for Heritage Buildings, people are invited to contact North Shore City's Actionline on 486 8600, email goodsolutions@northshorecity.govt.nz or visit the website at http://www.northshorecity.govt.nz/.

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