Invercargill Deputy Mayor Tom Campbell said the decision by council to grant consent for 21m high power pylons on Findlay Road may have not been the best one.
Councillors backed Ian Pottinger’s Notice of Motion to amend the District Plan at Tuesday's Community Wellbeing and Regulatory Committee.
Related: Residents Angry About Power Pole Upgrade
The Invercargill City Council will now look at a timeline for how the review could be considered, in order to better ensure the protection of residential amenity values.
Both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor initially felt that there was enough in the District Plan for council to decline consent, and Cr Campbell said it was just a matter of judgement.
Mayor Nobby Clark said he thought the problem was more with the provisions of council staff, but when it was put to the vote, Crs Pottinger, Ria Bond, Steve Broad, Alex Crackett, Barry Stewart, Grant Dermody, Cr Campbell, and Mayor Clark all voted in favour.
Those who did not were Crs Trish Boyle, Lesley Soper, and Darren Ludlow.
In addressing the meeting, Cr Pottinger referred to the pylons as “behemoth structures,” that had no place in a residentially-zoned area, and believed the District Plan had failed those living on Findlay Road.
“For no notification to occur means council assessed that this was less than minor.”
“Is this the norm we expect in residential 1 for this to happen?” he said.
Invercargill lawyer Shelley Munro addressed the council on PowerNet’s Awarua power pole upgrade project in August, on behalf of residents.
Shelley said three landowners in particular would be severely affected, and described bullying tactics by the power company for the 21m high structures on their land.
The power poles would have “catastrophic” impacts on their land values, and the affected landowners were only informed a month before the consent was lodged on July 2.
When the company was questioned at a public meeting, they were told underground powerlines would be too expensive.
Cr Pottinger recently challenged the resource consent and said the company “downplayed” the option of underground powerlines, and was disappointed that the option was dismissed.
When that path was blocked, he decided to bring the Notice of Motion to council and said he didn’t want that to happen again to people in Invercargill.
“There has to be some protection to stop 21m high power poles…”