The decision to allow rich-listers Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray to fly helicopters from their $26 million Westmere home is being challenged in the courts.

Quiet Sky Waitematā, a group set up to oppose private helicopters in residential Auckland, said it had filed an appeal to the Environment Court today.

In a statement, Quiet Sky said it disagreed with the June decision of an independent hearings panel approving private helicopter operations in Westmere.

“Their radical ruling reflects an unanticipated interpretation of the Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP) and goes against overwhelming public sentiment to oppose private helicopters in residential areas,” said secretary Elena Keith.

Quiet Sky secretary Elena Keith.

She said the legal action was not just for Westmere, but for Auckland.

“If this decision isn’t challenged, the floodgates for helicopters in backyards will open. We simply can’t let this terrible decision stand.”

Keith said the commissioners decided that helicopters were “inherently residential”.

“Therefore, they say that using a helicopter is a permitted activity, like using a bike or a car. In our opinion, that is absurd.”

Keith said the decision could open the door for private helicopter operations in residential Auckland without the need for resource consent, putting the burden on neighbours to prove noise limit breaches.

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“How is that fair?”

What’s more, Keith said, the Government’s latest proposal to stop plan changes until the Resource Management Act was sorted out reinforced the need for an appeal to ensure that helicopter applications were not processed as permitted activities in the interim.

The Herald is seeking comment from Mowbray.

After six days of public hearings in May, the three commissioners concluded that operating a helicopter in residential zones was a “permitted activity”, and inherently associated with residential land use.

In their decision, the commissioners dismissed concerns about helicopter noise, including concerns about privately operated helicopters coming and going in nearby Herne Bay.

The decision could open the door for more private helicopter operations in residential Auckland, says Quiet Sky.

They said there was nothing untoward, unacceptable, or significantly out of character with helicopter noise in an urban residential environment per se.

The panel acknowledged numerous submitters would be disappointed with the decision, but said their interpretation of the council’s Unitary Plan and legal precedents led to the application’s approval.

The application drew 1400 submissions, of which more than 1300 were opposed.

News of the appeal comes days before Auckland councillors could get the ball rolling to prohibit private helipads in residential areas.

Waitematā and Gulf councillor Mike Lee is seeking to have two notices of motions under his name on Thursday’s policy and planning committee agenda.

They request staff to begin work to make private helipads a prohibited activity in residential areas under the Unitary Plan, and a prohibited activity in residential areas on Waiheke and Aotea/Greater Barrier Islands under the Hauraki Gulf Island section of the district plan.

The agenda is still being worked on and is due to be published shortly.

Lee said considering helicopters the same as cars and bikes under the Unitary Plan was “clearly a damaging, socially destabilising outcome for the community” and increasing reputational damage to the council.

Waitemata and Gulf ward councillor Mike Lee. Photo / Alex Burton

The three local boards in his ward - Waitematā, Waiheke and Aotea Great Barrier - were calling for helipads to be prohibited in residential areas, he said, saying there were 60 helipads on Waiheke, 11 on Aotea Great Barrier and four in the city’s western bays.

Quiet Sky plans to present a petition with about 4000 signatures to the policy and planning committee in support of Lee’s notices of motion.

City Vision, the ticket of Labour, Green and community independents on the council, has issued a media release opposing the consent for the new helipad in Westmere, saying it is focused on working towards an enduring solution on helipads in residential areas.

A council spokesperson said it currently had three resource consent applications for helipads on Waiheke Island, and one on Rakino Island.