WCC Significant Natural Area Land Grab

Paddy from Johnsonville

Hi Neighbors,
You may have recently received an innocuous looking communication from the Wellington City Council that informs you about the establishment of Significant Natural Areas or SNA's around wellington.

The documents were accompanied by a map which was of such a ridiculously small scale it was not clear where these areas would actually apply. We eventually found an online map that showed that the Council plans to apply this designation to more than 2/3 of our section and all of our neighobur's section (as he has not built on it yet). These are not pristine native bush but scrub covered sections. You can find the map here (just copy and paste into your browser)
wcc.maps.arcgis.com...

We were shocked to see that this designation will also apply to hundreds of properties across Wellington. I have followed up with the council and was told that they expect to be able to apply "reasonable protections" to these SNA's which will mean restrictions on what you can do with your land. This will obviously impact on resale values and what you can do with your property.

While I am not averse to protecting and conserving our environment I and my neighbors do not think it is fair or reasonable for the council to be able to unilaterally impose wide ranging restrictions on what we can do on our own property. The Hutt City Council recently tried a similar approach which was vigorously apposed by residents and ended with the Mayor having to apologise to ratepayers. They are now pursuing an opt in approach for those who want that designation on their land. This approach of seeking engagement and cooperation from property owners seems vastly more sensible than the "my way and that's it" approach that WCC is taking.

We are determined to appose this land grab but we need your support if this is going to work. If HCC can be made to back down then we believe WCC can be too but it won't happen if people are apathetic about it. We have set up an email address where you can register support and keep updated with progress this is
nosnaonprivateland@gmail.com
Please feel free to email me if you want more information, support or to be involved in our fight for fairness here.

Best regards
Paddy