The Hutt Voluntary Heritage Group has claimed victory after today’s report from an independent panel assessing the Hutt City Council’s intensification plans recommended all proposed heritage areas be dropped.

Under the Council’s proposed Plan Change 56, which implements the Government’s new intensification laws, the proposed new heritage areas would have restricted building height and density limits for selected streets, while streets around them would have been free to build higher.

The independent panel recommended the Council not proceed with the proposed new residential heritage areas of Hardham Crescent, Hutt Road Railway, Moera Railway, Petone Foreshore, Petone State Flats, and Wainuiomata Terracrete Homes.

Hutt Voluntary Heritage Group Convenor Phil Barry says justice has been served against the Hutt Council’s willingness to sacrifice the rights of private homeowners.

“We’re happy that fairness and logic has prevailed, and the Council has been told in no uncertain terms that it went way too far.

“It is a major embarrassment to the Council staff and Councillors – their proposal was completely and utterly rejected.

“It is a disgrace and a mark against their professional judgement, that the idea was even put in front of the Panel.

“This has been a long, hard slog for many of the homeowners in the proposed heritage areas, who would have seen their house values drop and been subject to increased insurance and maintenance costs.”

In its report, the independent panel said it was unconvinced about the strength of the Council’s case when it comes to the proposed inclusion of new residential heritage precincts in PC56.

In the Panel’s view, “the new precincts as notified tend not to contain scheduled heritage items … this naturally raised the underlying question as to whether the areas concerned are really valued for heritage reasons as opposed to their character.”

“It is our finding… that considerations of ‘character’ appear to have manifested and reappeared under the guise of residential heritage precincts.”

Barry says the findings are damning and scuttle the case for any heritage area designations in future.

“The panel found the heritage assessments the Council commissioned were unconvincing, which completely thwarts any future plans for the proposed heritage areas to be implemented.

“This finding is unsurprising because any reasonable person could see the houses the Council called heritage were just like any other middle-income family homes in Wellington.

“We’re happy the panel saw through the Council’s sham, and we now look forward to the Council officially abandoning the proposed heritage areas at its meeting on August 30, and ruling out proposing those areas for heritage designation again.

“400 Hutt residents are today celebrating that they have not been forced into heritage controls that have all of the control and none of the heritage.”

The Hutt Voluntary Heritage Group represented many of the affected homeowners during the consultation process on Plan Change 56 and believes that privately owned homes should only be heritage listed with the express written consent of the homeowner.

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