Dear Editor,
I write in reference to the position piece written by Act MP Simon Court. I am appalled at the position that the ACT Party is taking around land development and calling it property rights.
From someone who has spent a career within the regulatory system I can attest to the fact that the RMA has always been considered enabling of land development and very hard to operate under to protect the environment. Also, the RMA is translated into Unitary and Regional Plans which are then interpreted through Council planners. While the ACT Party may call for RMA reforms, there will still be this additional layer of regulatory control that needs to be addressed to “loosen the strings”.
All of the restrictions that the party feels are being experienced by landowners will be as a result of the individual planners who are interpreting the Plans, Policies and Objectives within each council, not the RMA.
One of the main reasons we have restrictive plans is that not every landowner is a civil engineer or surveyor and cannot predict how their development will affect those around them and the wider environment. I have seen so many houses being built straddling streams, within floodplains, and on raised terraces within a floodplain that would push flood waters into their neighbours. Additionally, many subdivisions are designed with a certain amount of impervious surface to avoid causing flooding to downstream properties, but landowners over time concrete their sections to allow for more parking, extend houses and inevitably increase their impervious surfaces.
Can you imagine what an urban area would look like if anyone could build a 10 storey apartment within 1m of your bungalow, removing your sunlight and causing a fire hazard, as their inherent property right? When a property owner intensifies their property development, how will they access the downstream wastewater and stormwater pipes and enlarge them to accommodate the excess runoff caused by the development?
Development on a property does not just affect that one property, hence why the government introduces controls to make sure a developer has considered everyone around them. Caution must be shown in an RMA review that gives individual property owners the right to do what they want on their properties.
Danielle Hancock, Far Sky Consulting, Kaukapakapa.
