Kiwifruit shelters prompt complaints from Eastern Bay of Plenty residents

An artificial crop protection structure on the boundary of a Whakatāne district property. Photo / Supplied

Complaints about kiwifruit shelters blocking natural light have prompted a Bay of Plenty council to revisit its rules.

Whakatane District Council last month agreed to lower the decibel level for audible bird-scaring devices, pending public consultation, after rural residents complained about the noise.

Now it is artificial crop protection structures that are causing issues for neighbours.

A report about the large, fence-like structures of shade cloth supported by wooden poles by policy, planning and consents compliance manager Nicholas Woodley was received at last week's strategy and policy committee meeting.

"In the past few years there has been a significant increase in horticultural cropping in the Whakatāne district," the report said.

"The Whakatāne District Plan allows ACPS to be placed on property boundaries with conditions that are limited to controls on height and colour. The cloth must be green or black. The council has received several complaints about the effects of these structures."

Complaints mainly concerned the visual dominance and shading of dwellings near boundaries.

The council commissioned Cogito Consulting to investigate whether they should make changes to the plan rules for the structures.

A resulting scoping report evaluated Whakatāne district's rules against those of five other districts where horticulture was a significant activity. These were Western Bay of Plenty, Ōpōtiki, Hastings, Waikato and Tasman districts.

This comparison showed that, although these councils mostly had "highly enabling rules in place" for the structures, Whakatāne district's rules were "less stringent than those of neighbouring councils".

It concluded that there was "a reasonable case to consider a plan change to at least align the district plan rules with those of neighbouring councils".

Current rural zone rules allow for a maximum height of 8m or 12m, depending on whether the lot is more than or less than 5000 sq/m but are excluded from complying with rules for buildings including height-to-boundary and distance-to-boundary rules and also excluded from fencing rules of no higher than 2m.

This means orchardists can, in some cases, build a shade cloth structure of 12m on its boundary regardless of whether it is going to throw shade on a neighbour's home.

Neighbouring councils have no height limit but Ōpōtiki district has a minimum setback of 5m from any lawfully established residential building. Waikato district requires a 12m setback and has height-to-boundary rules, however, these are being appealed by Horticulture NZ to seek exemptions similar to Whakatāne district's.

Whakatāne mayor Judy Turner said her concern was for existing rural homes of people who built there "in good faith" to suddenly have a big structure blocking their natural light which would affect the health of the housing.

"Those are the ones where we need to be concerned. If the shelter was there first, you buy it knowing what you are buying into. That's another matter. That is going to be the tricky thing for us.

"It's great that people are adapting their farming and we need to be careful of not disadvantaging farmers. But at the same time there is this courtesy thing."

The committee agreed to a recommendation by staff to prepare a discussion document and draft plan change that could be used for engagement with key stakeholders.

This engagement will inform a future report to the committee.