Auckland Council planning committee yesterday voted for stricter noise limits on helicopters on Hauraki Gulf islands (file picture). Photo: 123RF
Auckland councillors have voted to lower noise limits on helicopters on Hauraki Gulf islands.
This follows a rapid increase in the number of helipads being consented on Waiheke and Aotea Great Barrier islands.
Local boards told a planning committee meeting on Thursday to go further, and apply the 2010 coastal management rules to protect wildlife.
But council planners told the meeting that might take till 2029 as it required a plan change, where as lowering the noise limit did not.
Councillor Mike Lee moved to act faster on getting tougher, saying the "patchwork of measures" planners had recommended "will not tidy this away ... will not give relief to neighbours".
What is at stake is whether to make private helicopter use on the islands, and in city neighbourhoods, a prohibited activity that triggers far stricter rules.
Raising the bar to prohibited "frightened" some staff, but if Sydney could prohibit helipads in lots of places, Auckland could too, Lee said.
Councillors voted in favour of taking a look at tougher rules in the next year or two, rather than starting in 2026 when the citywide Unitary Plan is reviewed.
Planners have previously warned staff were too overloaded and this might cost a lot.
However, committee chair Richard Hill gave this apology.
"I'm sorry to the community and to the wildlife that this isn't fast.
"But I think all ears and eyes and compliance are going to have to be hotter on this and we'll make sure that it's easier to complain," Hill said.
Kim Whitaker of lobby group Quiet Sky Waiheke told RNZ it was a win of sorts.
"We have a win over the noise.
"This will mean that some helicopter consents will be more difficult to obtain because it will increase the boundary, the distance, away from the helipad," Whitaker said.
"It's still not going to protect the birdlife."
Lee questioned why planners were even calling lowering the noise limit an "option", when it appeared all they were doing was belatedly complying with existing national noise standards.