KARLA AKUHATA
GOING: This villa at 70 Firth St, within the Hamilton East heritage precinct, has been advertised for removal.
The Hamilton City Council’s commitment to protecting heritage buildings is being questioned after a villa in the Hamilton East heritage precinct was advertised on Trade Me as available for removal.
But the council said it had no choice but to allow the removal because a consent was awarded before the precinct was established. The villa, which is on Firth St in Hamilton East, is owned by Tarheel Properties Ltd.
Director Craig Malcolm declined to provide the Waikato Times with details of the planned development.
But a memo from the council shows a resource consent was initially granted to the company to establish a five-unit development in 2006.
The consent was not implemented and the council was advised the developers did not intend to proceed with the development.
On July 13, 2009, a building consent application was received by the council which sought the right to demolish the villa, a garage, two carports and a shed.
The council approved the consent on July 21, 2009.
The Hamilton East heritage precinct was established on September 12, 2009, under variation 20, only seven weeks after the resource consent had been granted for the removal of the villa at 70 Firth St.
Harriet Di Maio, who has lived in Hamilton East and is a admirer of old homes, said she was outraged when she found the villa listed on Trade Me for removal.
“Why did they allow a consent for it, someone in the council must have known about this precinct when this consent was granted?
“It seems to me that it is typical of Hamilton town planning that they could allow a consent for the removal of an old villa two months before they set up a special heritage area.
“I just think it is sad because Hamilton East is a cool area but they have been allowing these houses that are pretty bleak to be built there.”
City planning manager Robert Hodges said the council was dedicated to protecting Hamilton’s heritage buildings.
“The council identified that we needed to protect the heritage buildings in the city and the precinct was designed to try and stop people demolishing or removing old buildings.”
He said there were 135 properties listed on the heritage buildings list but only 128 had a protected building status.
“We have identified 15 new heritage items since the formation of the precinct and they were admitted to the list a little while back.”
But he said the council could not retrospectively apply the new provision which was created when the precinct was set up.
“Provisions under the Resource Management Act tell us that we cannot apply new provisions to an old situation.
“The council wouldn’t have any kind of control over it if these people had lodged their application and had been awarded a consent before the precinct was established.”
However Hamilton East Community Trust chairwoman Lois Livingston said since the villa wasn’t removed before the precinct was established, the owners would need to obtain a consent because variation 20 now has legal effect.
She said if the owners had wanted to secure their rights to remove the villa they needed to apply for a certificate of compliance.
– Waikato Times
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