The Government has opened consultation on removing or loosening heritage rules at five Wellington sites, using a power over council district plans that central government has reached for only once before.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop released the investigation report on Monday 3 August and began inviting feedback from affected parties the same day. Public consultation opens on Wednesday 5 August and runs for 10 days.
The five sets of provisions under review cover the Courtenay Place Heritage Area, the Karori Tunnel, the Kelburn Viaduct, the former General Headquarters Building on the corner of Taranaki and Buckle streets, and the bulk oil storage tank at 139 Park Road in Miramar.
“The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Wellington asked me to look at heritage provisions related to the Karori Tunnel and Kelburn Viaduct, the former General Headquarters Building at the corner of Taranaki Street and Buckle Street, and the Miramar oil tank,” Bishop said. “They also asked me to look at the height restrictions in the Courtenay Place Heritage Area.”
“The investigation found that some heritage provisions are having negative impacts on economic growth and employment and explores how these can be remedied. I am now consulting on those findings.”
The request came from Wellington City Council itself. Mayor Andrew Little and Deputy Mayor Ben McNulty wrote to Bishop in May asking him to investigate the five cases, which is an unusual step for a council that would ordinarily defend its own district plan. McNulty told the New Zealand Herald the report was “fantastic news for Wellington” and that heritage “is important to protect but has to be balanced against cost and other priorities”.
Bishop put numbers on what he says is at stake. The report estimates that modifying or removing the relevant controls could enable around 770 additional apartments, generate roughly $280 million in construction activity and support around 300 jobs through commercial redevelopment, including film studio facilities.
Those figures describe what the planning rules currently prevent rather than what would actually get built. A district plan sets the ceiling on development. Whether anyone builds to that ceiling depends on interest rates, construction costs and demand, none of which the minister controls. That gap between what is permitted and what gets funded is the weak point in every estimate of this kind, and it is the point critics of the change have gone straight to.
The most concrete cost claim relates to the two transport structures. When Bishop announced the investigation in May, he said heritage listings on the Karori Tunnel and Kelburn Viaduct meant relatively straightforward upgrade works had reportedly risen in cost from around $350,000 to around $2.5 million because of planning requirements. The tunnel is Wellington’s oldest road tunnel and the main route into Karori. The viaduct is a reinforced concrete road bridge completed in 1931.
The Miramar tank is the one drawing the most attention. It is the last remaining bulk storage tank from the British Imperial Oil Company installation begun in 1925, which was the first of its kind in New Zealand. It was added to the district plan as a heritage item in recent years. The site is now owned by a company controlled by Sir Peter Jackson and Dame Fran Walsh, next to their Park Road Post Production studios. In May, Bishop said evidence suggested extra capacity at the Weta FX and Wingnut Films site could support around 150 more workers.
The power Bishop is using is section 360I of the Resource Management Act, added last year by the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act. It lets the minister responsible for RMA reform remove or modify provisions in council plans where they negatively affect economic growth, development capacity or employment. It was used for the first time on Auckland’s Eden Park, where the Government stepped in over rules limiting the number of major events the stadium could host.
Wellington has already seen a version of this. The derelict Gordon Wilson Flats on The Terrace lost their heritage protection through a separate amendment to the same bill last year, clearing the way for Victoria University of Wellington to demolish a building that had sat empty since 2012. That demolition began in February and is budgeted at $7.25 million.
The consultation is deliberately tight. Stakeholders invited to comment from Monday include Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, the New Zealand Defence Force, Greater Wellington Regional Council and the region’s councils, and roughly 230 owners and occupiers identified from the Wellington City Council rates database. Everyone else gets 10 days from Wednesday.
Ten days is short for a decision that would permanently strip protections from structures that have been listed for decades, and no heritage organisation had published a formal response as of Tuesday morning. Bishop has not pre-committed to any outcome. He said several statutory steps must be completed before any regulations can be made, and that he will weigh feedback from affected parties alongside the council’s own response before deciding whether to recommend regulations.
The wider argument is the one that will follow this Government to the 7 November election. Ministers say council planning rules are a brake on building and that central government should be willing to override them. Critics say the rules are being blamed for a slump that has more to do with interest rates, construction costs and weak demand, and that once a heritage listing is gone it does not come back. If planning powers and who gets to use them matter to your vote, our voting tool is a good place to compare where the parties stand.
Details on how to take part and the full investigation report are on the ministry’s website. RNZ and Wellington Scoop have also covered the report.
What do you think? Should the Government be able to override council heritage rules when they hold up development, or is 10 days too short a window to have your say? Leave a comment below and tell us where you stand.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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