Cox's Bay residents are pushing back against the potential for a new helicopter pad in their area, with fears it would "set a precedent" that would be detrimental to the region.
Anna Mowbray, the co-founder of toy company Zuru, and her partner, former All Black Ali Williams, were asking for their latest application for consent to land helicopters at their Rawene Ave, Westmere property to proceed without a public hearing.
Auckland Council is currently looking at a resource consent application for the heli-pad, which has progressed to the point of being able to undertake a full assessment of the proposal.
The next step is to decide whether the application should proceed on a notified or non-notified basis.
Cox's Bay resident Susan Nemec told Breakfast she was concerned about heli-pads becoming more widespread throughout Auckland city and approval for this consent would "set a precedent" which was detrimental to the region.
"We've had more than 2500 signatures to our petition from the community that have written to the council expressing their concerns about helicopter noise and possibly [the] precedent set."
There was been opposition to helicopter pads on Waiheke Island, which already had 60 such facilities. There were at least nine on Aotea/Great Barrier Island and eight in residential areas of Auckland city.
"Before we know it, our city is going to become intensified and there are noise concerns as cities become more urban.
"Wealthy seaside property owners [who] have the space, they're going to go 'oh they have one, why can't I have one?'," she said.
She said, under the Unitary Plan, Auckland Council was not supposed to allow significant noise in residential areas and the issue was "clearly controversial".
"I know, in Herne Bay, there has been a lot of issues with residents.
She cited a recent case in which property developer Simon Herbert and his wife, former Miss New Zealand Paula Herbert, applied to increase to the number of helicopter trips they could take in and out of their waterfront Cremorne St property.
The application sought to increase from one take-off and landing a day to two, with an maximum per week increased from two to four, but keeping to a maximum of 104 flights per year.
Nemec said the couple withdrew the consent application due to community opposition.
"We are aware that the more helicopters there are, the more pushback there is," she said.
Nemec said Mowbray and Williams have adjusted part of their application, based on their own ecological report, but she said this didn't take into consideration the impact on rare, endangered birds in the region.
"We don't get why the council are not listening to the community and not aware of the environmental concerns to wildlife and human beings.
"It's been going on for a couple of years and the understanding was that it was going to be notified because the council, under the Resource Management Act does have an obligation for controversial issues to be notified. But now, it's not.
"Now the applicants want it to be non-notified. And we don't know quite when [the council] are going to make that decision. They could be doing further research, they could be talking amongst themselves. We don't know."
Auckland Council responds
In a statement, Auckland Council said it was currently processing a resource consent application for a heli-pad at the Rawene Ave, Westmere address.
"This application has progressed to the point of being able to undertake a full assessment of the proposal.
"The next step in the process is for the council to make a notification determination (decide whether the application should proceed on a notified or non-notified basis) on the application," an Auckland Council spokesperson said.
Breakfast approached the owners of the Westmere property, but they declined to comment.
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