How hard to swap section zoned residential to industrial?

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JayADee

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#306677 12-Aug-2023 16:13

Anybody got some council zoning nouse?

How hard is it for the owner of a property in a residential zone to get it switched to a 'temporary' industrial zone (where the person doing it thinks the impact will be minimal due to the type of activity). Temporary in this case being a year or two.

I googled with no luck.

Thanks.

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#3115026 12-Aug-2023 16:31

I think it has to align with the district plan and I’m not sure they do temporary changes to that kind of thing as it involves consultation etc.

JayADee

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#3115049 12-Aug-2023 17:58

I'm hoping the whole thing fizzles but the instigators seem serious about trying, running around trying to get signed consent forms from affected households.

sib106

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#3117364 17-Aug-2023 23:21

Not my area of expertise - I'm just an engineer who interacts with the planners enough to make my ignorance sound like I know what I'm talking about. This likely all revolves around the District Plan and what is allowed on the present (residential?) zoning. It would likely be easier to see if the Council can be convinced to permit the proposed activity within the present zone. I would guess any change to the zoning would be through a Private Plan Change, which typically requires armies of consultants and hearings open to anyone who has an opinion. I have never heard of a quick-n-dirty temporary way around the whole process (but again note caveat about my ignorance). I will let you decide how this fits on your complicated scale :)

boosacnoodle

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#3117443 18-Aug-2023 10:29

You may be able to obtain resource consent or may need a private plan change. Best to check with your local councils duty planner.

sib106

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#3117496 18-Aug-2023 10:43

Agreed on this. Note in many cases asking the duty planner (in person or by email) is free of charge. Also note you might get the graduate planner with two weeks’ experience.

JayADee

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#3117688 18-Aug-2023 16:19

I'm hoping they won't be allowed to do it, I won't be signing the permission form they brought around and I'll be objecting if it gets to the stage of informed consent. I'm hoping council's granting consent of this type is rare. It's zoned residential for blocks around and they are asking for a non-complying activity and will need a resource consent as far as I can figure out.

The neighbours over the back fence want their residential section to be turned ‘temporarily' (2-3 years) into a section where they can refurbish the interior of houses. The houses will trucked onto site at night 3 at a time at night, refurbished inside and then be removed to a new off-site location. It's a large lot and they want to do 3 at a time and have about 10 tradies on site working on them. The 3 houses will be at the back of their section which is the part that shares a fence with our back yard. Our house is located not far from where the houses will be because our house is at the back of our lot. I think it says there's a minimum of 1.5 m their houses will have to be from the fence.

I don't feel this is 'minor' at all- it's not like there's one house being built which will then be done, we're looking at 2-3 years of constant coming and going right over the back fence which is already 1.8 m high. Our house is on a slight rise and one of our back decks directly overlooks what will be their work site.

The quiet amenity we enjoy now is going to be shot. We spend a LOT of time in the back garden (being retired) we owning a dog and have our veggie garden back there. It's also where we entertain.

Beats me why they didn't just buy a lot that was already zoned industrial or at least not residential. They only bought it a few months ago… grrrr.

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wellygary

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#3117741 18-Aug-2023 16:42

Off the top of my head there are a whole bunch of issues including

Noise, - both during the day and at night with trucking movements at night.

Increase in Vehicle movements, - Trucks delivering both the houses and the supplies to refurbish them, + all the tradie vehicles,

Waste and pollution disposal, you can't have 10 tradies on a site with out access to some form of sewage/waste disposal.

The applicant will be hoping to sneak this through as "less than minor" so they can avoid it being publicly notified,

I'd get a bunch of neighbours together and make noise in the local media and on line... call your local councillor and make sure they know you are not happy with what is being proposed...

What council is it??

Senecio

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#3117746 18-Aug-2023 16:53

having more context that you've now provided, this shouldn't even get past the admin clerk in the council office.

They should have bought a more appropriate section or separated their business from their residential home. If you and other neighbours object then it won't get far at all.

Daynger

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#3117771 18-Aug-2023 18:05

You are going to want to be proactive about this otherwise they may sneak it through without you getting a chance to object.

Go see the council and take the letter they gave you to sign as evidence and state your case, see if council has any recommendations on how to fight it.

JayADee

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#3117865 18-Aug-2023 21:57

Thanks. I guess I'm going to have to go to council. I'll take the letter with me.

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#3117875 18-Aug-2023 22:38

JayADee:

The neighbours over the back fence want their residential section to be turned ‘temporarily' (2-3 years) into a section where they can refurbish the interior of houses. The houses will trucked onto site at night 3 at a time at night, refurbished inside and then be removed to a new off-site location. It's a large lot and they want to do 3 at a time and have about 10 tradies on site working on them. The 3 houses will be at the back of their section which is the part that shares a fence with our back yard. Our house is located not far from where the houses will be because our house is at the back of our lot. I think it says there's a minimum of 1.5 m their houses will have to be from the fence.

I don't feel this is 'minor' at all- it's not like there's one house being built which will then be done, we're looking at 2-3 years of constant coming and going …

Totally unacceptable IMO. You’re right - not minor at all. Fight it tooth and nail.

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SomeoneSomewhere

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#3117912 19-Aug-2023 09:51

I would expect them to try and say "It's no worse than building a medium-density housing block, which is permitted."

They're not hopelessly wrong. That's disruptive, loud, involves a bunch of tradies, and lasts for a while - but we still allow it for good reasons.

However, in this case, there's obvious differences:

Building a house/s more-or-less has to happen on the section the house will be on. It cannot entirely be relocated to another (more suitable, industrial) area without completely changing the type of building. In this case, they are already relocating buildings, so it should be trivial for them to instead locate suitable land.
Building a house/s typically involves smaller quantities of materials, delivered by standard-size trucks and hoisted onto site. Moving entire houses (or even half houses) requires oversize trucks, road closures, and likely night works due to the need to close roads.
Building a house/s can be done within daylight hours on weekdays. No night works are generally needed, excluding perhaps some services upgrades like work to install a new transformer.
Relocating houses is generally going to require only one group of truck movements, whether the house is coming or going to the section. This work is proposed to be sustained and ongoing - regularly repeated truck movements, and even if they are only seeking a 1-2 year consent period, there's no reason why they would want to stop after that period.

wsnz

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#3117933 19-Aug-2023 11:31

JayADee:

How hard is it for the owner of a property in a residential zone to get it switched to a 'temporary' industrial zone (where the person doing it thinks the impact will be minimal due to the type of activity). Temporary in this case being a year or two.

Changes to zoning are achieved either as part of the district plan review, or through private plan changes. These changes are permanent.

From what you've described below, they'll be seeking a resource consent for the activity, and as part of that council are highly likely to require the input of experts through a traffic impact analysis, acoustic assessment etc. If you're deemed to be an affected party, you will have an opportunity to review the proposal & supporting documents so that you can decide if you wish to accept the proposed consent or not. It's important to note that if the impact is assessed as minor and you refuse to sign, a consent could still be granted.

JayADee

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#3118958 22-Aug-2023 11:18

SomeoneSomewhere:

I would expect them to try and say "It's no worse than building a medium-density housing block, which is permitted."

They're not hopelessly wrong. That's disruptive, loud, involves a bunch of tradies, and lasts for a while - but we still allow it for good reasons.

However, in this case, there's obvious differences:

Building a house/s more-or-less has to happen on the section the house will be on. It cannot entirely be relocated to another (more suitable, industrial) area without completely changing the type of building. In this case, they are already relocating buildings, so it should be trivial for them to instead locate suitable land.
Building a house/s typically involves smaller quantities of materials, delivered by standard-size trucks and hoisted onto site. Moving entire houses (or even half houses) requires oversize trucks, road closures, and likely night works due to the need to close roads.
Building a house/s can be done within daylight hours on weekdays. No night works are generally needed, excluding perhaps some services upgrades like work to install a new transformer.
Relocating houses is generally going to require only one group of truck movements, whether the house is coming or going to the section. This work is proposed to be sustained and ongoing - regularly repeated truck movements, and even if they are only seeking a 1-2 year consent period, there's no reason why they would want to stop after that period.

One important detail I failed to mention is they plan on doing 9 houses per year, for 2-3 years, 3 houses at a time. Which means constant and ongoing works. They're saying every day 8:30-4:30 except national holidays. Plus the night movements for every house. Also a good point about blocking or closing the roads to even get them onto the site.

And yeah, valid point about they may decide to just carry on past that point…

Thanks for the input, I'm going to add yours to my own ideas.

JayADee

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#3118959 22-Aug-2023 11:19

wsnz:

JayADee:

How hard is it for the owner of a property in a residential zone to get it switched to a 'temporary' industrial zone (where the person doing it thinks the impact will be minimal due to the type of activity). Temporary in this case being a year or two.

Changes to zoning are achieved either as part of the district plan review, or through private plan changes. These changes are permanent.

From what you've described below, they'll be seeking a resource consent for the activity, and as part of that council are highly likely to require the input of experts through a traffic impact analysis, acoustic assessment etc. If you're deemed to be an affected party, you will have an opportunity to review the proposal & supporting documents so that you can decide if you wish to accept the proposed consent or not. It's important to note that if the impact is assessed as minor and you refuse to sign, a consent could still be granted.

Yeah that's what worries me. It's not for sure 100% certain to go our way.

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