Zones protect our heritage

buying into a heritage area can be an attractive option for a first-time homebuyer or developer looking to unlock unrealised potential. But sometimes the process can be time-consuming and costly.

Thursday, September 15th 2005, 8:37AM

by The Landlord

quite often, house hunters will seek features in a property such as its location, its age, number of rooms, and special attributes of the neighbourhood that contribute to the feel of the place. The character of an area can be an important factor.

through its district plan, auckland city council has identified four zones that are considered to have special character. Residential 1 and 2 are located in various pockets around the city, while the residential 3 zone is located on the volcanic cones, and residential 4 is a single site found in a small native bush pocket in blockhouse bay.

the residential 1 zone is identified by the characteristic villas and bungalows found in ponsonby, grey lynn, parnell, onehunga and otahuhu. The residential 2 zones are characterised by their treed nature and spacious sites, often containing slightly later period housing. These can be found in herne bay, epsom, mt albert, st heliers and remuera.

these special character zones cover approximately 17 per cent of the residential areas in auckland's isthmus, and include approximately 16,000 homes. The remaining zones provide greater design freedom where retaining a specific character may not be such a priority.

auckland city council has recently notified a plan change to improve the effectiveness of the rules that protect special character areas. The purpose is to maintain the heritage and character attributes of the residential 1 and 2 zones. This protects the interests of existing and prospective residents, so that there is some certainty that the character of these neighbourhoods will be maintained.

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