18/02/2026
Great to see this enlightened approach from Wellington City Council. They are 100% right. The Planning Bill needs a backbone when it comes to heritage.
The government is scrapping the RMA and replacing it with the Planning and Natural Environment Bills.
Tomorrow WCC will be approving our submission on the bills covering the areas we support and where we think changes are required.
On heritage buildings whilst these bills have some positive signals, they do not go anywhere near far enough if we want to stop strangling development in our urban centres and putting institutions like Wellington City Council on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of restoration costs.
I'm bringing amendments to our submission asking that the government do a few things:
1) Provide council the reasonable discretion to delist heritage buildings based on their impact on economic, cultural, urban and other outcomes.
2) That the heritage listing of a property requires consent of the owner.
3) To clarify if heritage precincts (such as Courtenay Place) will be continued under the bill and if yes ensure there is similar discretion to 1) above that can be applied so that development is not unreasonably stifled for amenity reasons.
These areas are fundamentally important as the bills layout a requirement for council's to provide regulatory relief where a heritage listing is imposed on a property.
If council doesn't have a mechanism for removing the listing, we could be paying millions of dollars to the owners of heritage listed buildings across Wellington - a terrible outcome for ratepayers.
