A building owner wanting to charge the council for ‘‘air space rental’’ has delayed a central city decoration project and been branded ‘‘outrageous’’ by a councillor.
Nelson City Council had planned to hang fairy lights and awnings from wires across Fiddle Lane, a pedestrian lane between Bridge St and Buxton Square and near Farmers, before winter this year as part of the Bridge St upgrade.
Councillors approved a budget of $200,000 for stage two of the upgrade in June, with most of that going towards extra lighting on Bridge St. Although the lighting was installed without issue, the decoration of the lane has faced delays with the owner of one of the buildings adjoining the lane wanting to charge the council rent for the use of the air space.
(The Nelson Mail, Tuesday, October 27, 2015)
A Texan artist is brightening Nelson one mural at a time with his unique bird and fauna images. Artist Jonathon Muzacz, who travelled to Nelson earlier this year, has created three large murals along Nelson's Milton St. Each depicts variations of native New Zealand birds and fauna.
Along with an image on the side of the Nelson Bays Motor Group wall, Muzacz has also completed a mural on the wall of the Milton St post office. The image of the Tui bird was especially named by a local veteran who was passing while he painted, he said.
"A local veteran named him Zak the Tui because when he was in the Vietnam War his tank had a hand painted kiwi bird on this side that the fellows in his squad named Zak".
He recently pitched a mural idea to the Nelson City Council for a wall on Bridge St. The design is a postcard depicting aspects of Nelson. Muzacz is yet to hear back, but he hopes to know if it is possible before he leaves Nelson at the end of November.
Either way, the artist will fit in a few more creative assignments before he leaves - next on his agenda is a feature wall at the Nelson Roller Sports Club in Tahunanui.
He will also be painting the courtyard wall of the new location for East St Vegetarian cafe which will reopen in the former Bar Berlin spot in Nelson's Church St in December.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, October 28, 2015)
A clutch of top of the south baches are finalists in the Bookabach Golden Piwa Awards, which celebrates the best holiday homes in New Zealand.
From more than 1000 nominations, Bookabach has selected 40 finalists across eight categories to choose New Zealand’s eight best baches.
Arapawa Homestead in Queen Charlotte Sound is a finalist in the Best Setting category; Murchison’s Triple Tui is a finalist in the Best Eco-friendly category; Nelson’s Sea View Apartments is a finalist in the Best City category; and Mapua’s Beech Hill is a finalist in the Best Pet-Friendly category.
(The Nelson Mail, Thursday, October 29, 2015)
Tasman District Council and Waimea irrigators’ estimates on building the Waimea Community Dam differ by $10m.
The council estimates it will cost $82.5m, using a 95 per cent risk factor the dam can be built for that or less, known as P95.
Waimea Community Dam Ltd (WCD) project manager Nick Patterson said its figure, based on professional advice, was $73m, including $6.5m already spent, using a P50 risk factor.
The project’s greatest risk factor was an adverse weather event during construction, he said. The council was taking a conservative stand and did not want to be the funder of last resort if it went over budget. But $73m should be its total target figure, he said.
The council’s chief executive Lindsay McKenzie said it had a duty to tell ratepayers what the costs could be, not what they wanted them to be.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, October 30. 2015)
Restricting the size of a mortgage to a multiple of a homeowner’s income proposed by Treasury would hinder, not help, the Auckland housing market, the Property Institute says. Chief executive Ashley Church said debt-to-income mortgage restrictions could lead to an artificial boom in apartments and could cut first-home buyers even more greatly out of the market if they were introduced.
The concept has been spurred by the release of Treasury documents, supporting the Reserve Bank’s intervention in the Auckland housing market but suggesting alternatives to loan-to-value ratios (LVRs).
Under LVRs, most borrowers have to have a set percentage of the house’s value as their deposit.
He said the fallout could include:
- Fuelling an artificial boom in apartment construction – caused by the fact that it was the only building most people could now afford.
- Putting up further barriers to first-home buyers.
- Prompting house listings to fall because home owners would choose to hang on to their properties rather than accept much lower prices for them.
- Stopping infill development, and possibly large scale development, because developers were also caught in the new restrictions.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, October 30, 2015)
Burner Change Backed
A change in Nelson’s woodburner rules is a step closer. Nelson City Council’s planning and regulatory committee unanimously voted to recommend to the council to bring a plan change notification forward by three months on Thursday.
The aim of shifting the plan change to January next year from March is to introduce potential changes to woodburner regulations before next winter.
The council will vote on the recommendation at next month’s meeting.
If supported by the full council, council staff will present the council with the proposed changes to the current rules in December. Those will then be publicly notified in January and, if there are no appeals to the decisions, be in place by next winter.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, October 30, 2015)
Council Confusion Over ‘Air Space’ Rental
The Nelson City Council is charging a building owner for renting the air space above Fiddle Lane, not the other way around.
Despite council staff being at the meeting, councillors were not informed that this was wrong and it was in fact the council charging the building owner air space rental for the building’s overhang into the council-owned lane. It was the council’s negotiations with the building owner that have delayed work being done in the lane.
Councillor Matt Lawrey said a misinterpretation of a Nelson City Council report had councillors at the works and infrastructure meeting under the impression the hold up was due to the business owner wanting to charge the council rent.
‘‘It appears the information we were given was incorrect,’’ he said.
He said when he found out it was the council charging air space rent that was holding up the decoration of the lane, he immediately tracked down the landlord and apologised for his comments that had ‘‘understandably caused him concern’’.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, October 31, 2015)
Thought For The Week
As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.
John Glenn