Helicopter hassle: Rules around consent unclear

 

BY JULIA WADE

Te Arai skies have been the scene of a year-long debate between two neighbouring properties involving the use and landing of helicopters, and has highlighted the question of the need of council consent when it comes to rural flying. 

Exclusive golf resort Tara Iti regularly uses the machines to fly clients in and out by air along designated flight paths. However a bordering neighbour, local woman Shelley Williams, claims the helicopters are ‘invasive’, their route aligning too close to her boundary and landing only 20 metres away from her farm building. She says that over a six month period, including the last summer, a minimum of four helicopters flew over her property every day.

“They create considerable noise as they fly overhead… sometimes flying under tree height over my property or less than 50 metres above my boundary shack roof,” Williams says. “I actually have a witness willing to state that in all the years they lived next to a British Air Force base, they never had any choppers fly as low and close to them as they experienced numerous times at my property.” 

Williams has contacted Tara Iti management several times in regards to the helicopters and has also referred her concerns and complaints to Kaipara District Council (KDC) and Auckland Council (AC), only to be told from governing council AC, that Tara Iti does not hold a resource consent for the landing of helicopters.  

“The council advised they had no record of an approved helipad adjacent to my boundary,” she says. “They said Tara Iti can land up to six flights per year for agriculture purposes, instead they’ve sometimes had six flights per day. I even have a KDC councillor as a witness to the constant landings and take-offs.” 

Tara Iti general manager Matt Guzik says the club is well aware of the acoustics issue regarding helicopters and, as the machines operate within the rural noise level requirements, no resource consent is required.

“Managing the helicopter flights is something we put a lot of thought into and we apologise to anyone who is inconvenienced by them. We are very mindful of limiting the impact of flights and the flight-paths are carefully designed with that in mind,” he says. “Resource consent is only required when rural environment noise standards are breached. The club carefully manages the level of helicopter activity to ensure compliance with those standards and, consequently, it does not need to apply for a consent.” 

Northland Aviation Ltd director Michael Chubb, who manages Whangarei Airport, says issues over the use of private helipads is a common one especially in affluent areas. 

“Private operations on private land won’t need a resource consent but I seem to recall some areas have a ‘one take off and one landing rule’ permitted per day and only by the owner of the property, not commercial activity or a mate coming in as well,” he says. “Noise is usually measured at the boundary… for helicopters up close it will be 75 possibly up to 95 decibels. Consider that anything above 75 will probably be considered harmful to hearing, not necessarily in a short duration but over time exposure.”

There appears to be no straight-forward answer as to whether or not flying and landing of helicopters in Northland rural areas would require a resource consent. According to KDC a consent would ‘potentially’ be required, depending on determining factors such as ‘the purpose and frequency, the distance of the landing area and proposed flight paths from neighbouring dwellings and resulting noise’. Whangarei District Council (WDC) say the activity would have to comply with the WDC’s district plan’s noise and vibration limits or a resource consent for discretionary activity would be needed. 

Despite repeated requests Te Arai’s governing Auckland Council could not offer an answer to the question of Tara Iti requiring a resource consent to land helicopters. 

However an AC spokesperson was able to say that the Auckland Unitary Plan states the take-off and landings of helicopters in rural zones are for the purposes of servicing rural land and must not exceed ‘Ldn 50 decibels or 85dB LAFmax’* within the boundary of any bordering site. 
“We aren’t aware of any consents permitting helicopter trips to and from the golf course although a landing area may have been provided for emergency circumstances,” she says. “There are specific rules surrounding noise limits with the use of regular helicopter activity and the team suggests that any concerns about regular aircraft movement to and from the golf course should be lodged as a formal complaint and can be investigated.”

* Ldn: Day-night equivalent level/noise indicator. LAFmax: A-weighted, fast, maximum, sound level.

A helicopter bound for Tara Iti in the skies above a bordering neighbours shed, has a local wondering about the need for council consent.