The newly built house on Rawene Avenue. Photo: RNZ/Maia Ingoe
Aucklanders fear their suburb will become a sky highway, threatening endangered birds and ruining their quality of life, if consent is given for a helipad at a newly built mansion.
Anna Mowbray, the co-founder of toy company Zuru, and her partner, former All Black Ali Williams, are asking for their latest application for consent to land helicopters at their Rawene Avenue, Westmere property to proceed without a public hearing.
If the helipad is approved, it will become the ninth helipad in a residential area of the city.
John Valentine has been a Rawene Avenue resident for 28 years.
"The street was actually quite a backwater then. Way less mansions, way more falling down 1920s bungalows and things," he said.
For years, he has explored with his children - and now his grandchildren - on the mud flats created by the low tides at Cox's Bay, on their property's doorstep.
"Down the end on the point that we're talking about, there are the rock pools, which our little girls call the mermaid pools.
"That way, there's a gorgeous little point at the bottom of the reserve. We call it the bear caves - or they do - and we've been on many a bear hunt. Yet to find a bear, but you never know your luck, maybe one day!"
However, his new neighbours want to fly helicopters from the headland where they play, four times a day, seven days a week.
"Our first reaction probably speaks the loudest. I was talking to my wife, and she just looked at me and said, 'that's it, we're not taking the kids down there anymore'.
"We don't know when the helicopter is going to arrive, it can arrive any time of the day, it only takes a minute or two from the horizon to landing. It's basically too dangerous, from both a hearing sense and a downdraft sense."
Valentine is part of a group of locals, called Quiet Sky Waitematā, who want to stop helicopter pads spreading to more properties lining the Waitematā Harbour.
"The current applicants have said, 'look the guys in Herne Bay have got one, so why shouldn't we be allowed one'. That's their perspective on it. And I guess you can kind of see that point of view, but where does it stop?"
John Valentine standing at Pipers Point at low tide, below the sea wall and edge of the Rawene Avenue property, where the helicopter is proposed to land. Photo: RNZ/Maia Ingoe
'Precious piece of inner harbour' at risk of disruption
Mowbray and Williams submitted a revised application for their helicopter pad in April. It said choppers would only fly to or from the property at either side of low tide, to avoid disturbing the birds that roosted on the headland, and would only fly between 7am and 10pm.
Jeanette Budgett, co-chair of Quiet Sky Waitematā, has spent days compiling records of the bird life at Cox's Bay - including seven endangered species.
"The helicopter has to come and go across the water. So this really rich bird life area, and busy waterfront inner city beach, will be severely impacted by helicopter noise," she said.
The birds include South Island pied oystercatchers (classed as at-risk by the Department of Conservation), Caspian terns (classed as threatened and nationally vulnerable), and the pied shag (at risk but recovering).
Budgett said the birds roosted at a rocky outcropping known as Pipers Point, sitting just under the proposed helipad landing site - but the entire bay was a home to bird life.
"Their habitat is that whole area. They feed out on Meola Reef, they forage in the mud in Cox's Bay, they roost on the headland, the Caspian terns nest on Meola Reef, they move around."
She said allowing helicopters in the area would be disastrous.
"The proximity of this helipad to the roost is completely untenable. Were a helicopter to fly in over the roost, because it is literally metres from them, the birds would be feather soup."
An ecological assessment for the revised application by Babbage Bioresearchers said the ecological effects on marine life would be "low to negligible", but a helicopter would be "highly likely" to disturb roosting birds.
It said high tide was the "critical time for roosting birds" and proposed that flying took place only at low tide.
"Although birds can become habituated to flights (i.e. at airports) this is unlikely to occur with helicopters at this site, because of the louder engines and motor vibration of the helicopters, and the low frequency of the flights," it said.
But a review commissioned by Quiet Sky Waitematā claimed the low-tide argument would to be insufficient to avoid adverse effects on threatened or at-risk bird species.
It said the assessment understated the impact on the marine habitat and coastal birds of Meola and Cox's Bay, which was likely to be much greater than estimated.
In a statement, Department of Conservation (DOC) senior biodiversity ranger Dave Wilson said while DOC did not have a position on this specific resource consent, in general, "occasional use of a helicopter pad would likely not have a significant enough impact to spark concern for conservation of these birds".
"The Department of Conservation advocates generally for the protection of habitat for these species, but is unable to engage in every RMA application," he said.
Cox's bay at low tide. The headland visible at the left is Pipers Point, just above which is where the helicopter is proposed to land. Photo: RNZ/Maia Ingoe
Could helicopters become commonplace?
Resident Susan Nemac said she was concerned about helipads becoming more widespread throughout the city.
"I'm concerned also, that the potential precedent for our harbour to become a highway for private helicopters, as there are a number of potential helipads that people could apply for, all the way down, each side of the coast."
There has also been opposition to helicopter pads on Waiheke Island, where the number has jumped to 60, and there are at least nine on Aotea/Great Barrier Island.
Resident Jeanette Budgett said the community was shocked that Mowbray and Williams requested that their most recent application be non-notified.
"The decision would get made by council behind closed doors, no one would get a chance to have a voice."
In a statement, Auckland Council said it was still processing the resource consent application, and it had not yet made a decision on whether it would be notified.
If it was notified, the public would have an opportunity to have their say in support or against the consent at a public hearing.
If it proceeded with limited notification, then the council would give affected parties the opportunity to formally lodge a submission, and a hearing could still happen.
However, if the application were to proceed on a non-notified basis, the council would not invite outside parties to make submissions.
Valentine said it would be an outrage if the consent was approved without public notification, and neighbours would be considering their legal options.
"There's so many people that have put their hands up and signed petitions and so on, clearly there's significant public interest about this."
He said the evidence put forward by Mowbray and Williams was insufficient to prove the impacts of a helicopter would be minor.
"There's this question of 'are helicopters expected in this city?' And my view is that they're tolerated when they're for the public good. We put up with the police helicopter, it's horrible but we put up with it. We put with emergency rescue helicopters, and we're enormously grateful.
"Absolutely there's a place for these things, but it isn't at the end of a quiet residential street to save someone 15 minutes driving to a heliport."
Representatives for Mowbray and Williams told RNZ the couple had no comment.
