Island residents crying 'enough' over helicopter movements come up against rigid planning laws, busy bureaucrats and Civil Aviation officials who question if there's really a problem
Great Barrier and Waiheke islanders fighting growing numbers of helipads and chopper usage look likely to have to wait for consideration of planning changes - because Auckland Council says its officials are fully stretched with big central Government policy changes.
The council's planning committee will this week focus on objections to the numbers of helicopters using the 49 pads on Waiheke and opposition to five new applications for helipads on Aotea Great Barrier.
But over-stretched staff are recommending the council first researches and monitors flight and landings data for Waiheke, including from the Civil Aviation Administration, to build an official picture over six months of any overuse, 'exceedances or discrepancies in flight log recording'. Then it could consider next steps at the end of the year, once separate Government deadlines for urban density and plan changes pass.
"Lack of capacity to undertake any new policy work is likely to continue for at least the next six months," a report to the planning committee says.
Officials say the council cannot in the meantime defer considering planning consent applications for the five new Aotea helipads - and that making helicopter landings and takeoffs a prohibited activity would be "an extremely difficult position to establish".
They also recommend against a local board's suggestions that Auckland Council seek an Environment Court declaration on how the helicopter traffic conforms to existing planning conditions.
The Hauraki Gulf provisions of the Auckland district plan are more lenient for helicopters than mainland Auckland's Unitary Plan, because in the early 2000s it was considered positive for tourism to be more flexible.
Under the AUP helicopter takeoff and landing is a 'non complying activity', giving the council unlimited power to regulate them. In the Gulf, they are a 'restricted discretionary activity' meaning conditions on operators and helipads are limited to visual and noise effects.
Two local boards, Waiheke and Aotea Great Barrier have raised concerns that the Hauraki Gulf planning rules do not provide sufficient controls over the growth in helicopter travel and the Waitematā board is concerned about the AUP controls in its area.
Waiheke wanted 'options to further control helicopter activity' and in December its members did not accept a council officers' reply that any review should take place with the scheduled review of the Auckland Unitary Plan in five years' time, in 2026. Council staff argue CAA figures show only seven of the 49 helipads on the island are regularly used (including the Mudbrick and Cable Bay vineyards, the sports ground for emergency services and the aerodrome) and a 'large proportion' have 'very low levels of activity'.
The CAA also suggested many helicopter movements across Waiheke were of over-flights between Auckland, Coromandel and Northland. The council does not have any oversight of helicopters in flight, just the takeoffs and landings on consented helipads.
A suggestion from the Waiheke board that all applications for new helipads be notified to those in the vicinity is also shot down by the Auckland Council officers' assessment to the planning committee. They argue that by law, notifications can only be on a case-by-case basis, not as a blanket requirement.
And even an appeal to consider global warming in dealing with helipad applications found little encouragement - with climate implications not able to be considered even after changes to the Resource Management Act are due from November this year.
Waitematā wanted recreational helicopter activity in urban and suburban areas, and on the coastal zones bordering them, prohibited. But, again, council officers say "it would be a very difficult task to justify a blanket prohibition on recreational helipads in residential and coastal zones... The premise underpinning prohibited activity status is that the effects are such that in no circumstances would a helipad be considered appropriate."
Aotea Great Barrier has had five applications for helipads between September 2021 and February this year, all within 5 to 7 km of the existing air field at Claris. The board sought a prohibition as part of a plan change and also said mana whenua had requested a suspension of helipad consents so Māori's role as kaitiaki, or guardian, of the Aotea environment could be considered.
"We have grave concerns with the cumulative effect of private, non-essential helicopter flights. These concerns relate to ecological impacts on our local biodiversity the high carbon impact on our climate and the sociological impacts on our island community," a board submission to the council said.
But the council report says no moratorium can be declared under the Resource Management Act.
Council officers say the six months of monitoring flights and use of helipads would be important in ensuring any possible work on a plan change did not fail if contested in court.
