Concerns Canterbury town will be 'overrun' with Airbnbs
By Jonathan Leask, Local Democracy Reporter
A Methven resident fears an epidemic of Airbnb owners flouting the rules and over-running residential areas.
Paul Dixey is calling on the council to act before it gets out of hand in the Canterbury town.
Methven, just over an hour's drive from Christchurch, is popular with skiers and holiday makers.
Dixey said three of the 15 properties in his new subdivision are being listed for rental accommodation.
"The industry needs better regulation.
"If they don't act, I fear it will become epidemic and then how will they stop it?"
Dixey said it doesn't seem right that properties are paying residential rates to the council but are operating as a commercial property.
"It needs to be addressed when the hotels down the road are paying through the nose to be commercial accommodation operators."
The growth of holiday rentals has sparked concerns across the country, with councils considering how to regulate the industry.
There are about 290 Airbnb rentals listed in Mid Canterbury.
Ashburton District Council compliance and development group manager Ian Hyde said the council is considering how to handle the increase and impact of the short-term rentals.
"Council staff are looking at all these issues currently and have been reviewing work done by other councils.
"There is a workshop planned with councillors this month on the wider subject of Airbnbs in our district."
Hyde said the district plan allows for visitor accommodation as a permitted activity for up to five guests.
"If a property was advertising for more than that, they would need to stop or get a resource consent to operate.
The council doesn't comment on specific enforcement complaints, but investigate where non-compliances are found.
"Sometimes people make an application once they realise that what they are doing requires consent.
"Council has the power to enforce the rules of the District Plan under the Resource Management Act, this can include fines, and where appropriate through the Courts. However, we prefer to work with people to address issues where we can."
Dixey said he felt the rules hadn't been enforced so far.
"We have no objection to them taking five [guests], but one has been advertising up to 12."
He said the majority of groups are fine but you can get "that one group that they have no control over".
The rental owners are not onsite so do not know how many people turn up and can mot monitor behaviour, he said.
One property owner has applied for a retrospective land use consent to carry out visitor accommodation for up to 11 people.
The consent document states the house would only be available for 90 nights a year.
Dixie said it could set a dangerous precedent that could result in residential areas being overrun by temporary accommodation, he said.
"What's to stop every house on the street applying for consent to be an Airbnb.
"You might as well turn the whole place into a commercial accommodation area as the zoning rules aren't worth the paper they are printed on."
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Dump Shop Rescues Items To Kit Out Homes For Struggling Families: ‘It Means Everything'
Article – Kira Carrington – Local Democracy Reporter Staff at The Dump Shop in Blenheim have been flat out, connecting households in need with furniture and appliances that were destined for the dump. Staff at The Dump Shop in Blenheim have been flat out, connecting households in need with furniture and appliances that were destined for the dump. JBL Environmental Ltd has been running the Unwanted Goods Project since it was contracted by Marlborough District Council to take over the shop formerly known as the Blenheim Re-use Centre on Wither Road, in July 2024. The aim is to divert usable items from waste for their many customers across Marlborough both those looking for a bargain, and those in urgent need of furniture, appliances and other basic household items. Managing director Chloe Abernethy said they had never found themselves short on donations. 'There's a really positive engagement with the community, they've been so supportive of us,' Abernethy said. 'When we went for this contract, our biggest goal was to just try and divert as much as possible [from landfill] and get it back out to the community. 'We try to not reject anything from anyone. We try to take as much as possible.' The service was particularly handy for people who did not have a truck or trailer to drop off or pick up items, she said. The service was free of charge. JBL operations manager Jabian Takarua said the project worked with organisations such as Women's Refuge, Work and Income, and Christchurch City Mission, sometimes kitting out families with a whole household's worth of items. 'It's an awesome feeling,' Takarua said. 'When you can grab this resource from seniors that would otherwise have to throw it in the rubbish … going to a family that's got nothing from the Hawke's Bay floods the other year, and coming down here trying to survive … it means everything. 'One man's trash, another man's treasure.' Gateway Housing Trust, which managed 16 transitional homes in Blenheim, worked with the project to secure household items for families leaving the service and moving into permanent homes. The trust's housing navigators Karyn and Carmel (who did not give their last names for privacy reasons) said they could not praise the project enough. 'Most of our families … they don't have a thing [when they leave], because all our units are fully furnished,' Karyn said. 'So when they go to move [out], they have nothing.' With eight families currently in the process of moving out, the trust reached out to The Dump Shop for help, and the team was able to spend last weekend organising furniture and household goods for the trust. They then put together starter kits to give to Gateway's families, made up of plates, pots, pans, sheets, pillow slips, and towels. 'I think JBL do an amazing job for our community and for our people,' Carmel said. Along with the Unwanted Goods Project, The Dump Shop's initiatives to divert waste included soft plastic recycling, a pallet recovery scheme, and even repurposing a tomato farm's coconut peat mulch. They planned to do even more community outreach and launch more projects, such as a construction and demolition waste recovery scheme. 'We've always said if we got kicked out of a job because there was no waste, then that would be a great day,' Abernethy said. 'We've done our job.' Collection and delivery forms were available by searching for the Unwanted Goods Project on the Marlborough District Council website.
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Local Opposition To Central Otago Goldmine Conducts Public Meetings
Opponents of a proposed Central Otago goldmine have ramped up their campaign this week, with public meetings in Dunedin and Wānaka. Australian company Santana Minerals has signalled plans to seek a fast-track permit for a mine between Bendigo and Ophir, where it estimated it could extract gold worth $4.4 billion. Lobby group Sustainable Tarras Inc raised concerns about the mine's visibility on the landscape - particularly the inclusion of one large, 1000x850m open pit mine, three smaller satellite pits and a tailings dam. The group also expressed concerns about large quantities of cyanide being stored upstream of the Clutha River, and the potential impact the project would have on the region's tourism and viticulture. Chair Suze Keith said about 50 people turned up in Dunedin on Tuesday and more than 100 had registered for the meeting in Wānaka on Thursday night. Speakers included academics, environmental advocates and Labour Party MP for Dunedin Rachel Booking. Ms Keith said the idea of the meetings was "to make a bit of noise". "We don't think that a project of this scale and of its nature is well suited to fast-tracking decision-making," she said. "It might make the decisions come out quickly, but we've got 10 years of operation of this thing and then we've got the perpetual liability of a toxic tailings dam." Santana Minerals has held its own public drop-in sessions at Tarras and Cromwell to discuss the project, with two more planned in coming weeks. The company said the fast-track application aimed to accelerate decision-making, "but it did not override the requirements of the Resource Management Act or other applicable legislation". Keith said the process had fuelled concerns about limited public input. "People are really interested to understand where it is and what it comprises, because a goldmine is not just a mess of a open hole on the ground, it's got a whole lot of other moving parts to it," she said. "What are the implications for the immediate area and the wider area in terms of what it would mean if it does go ahead?" Satana Minerals said the proposed mine was expected to have low visibility, due to surrounding landforms, and environmental considerations were "central" to project planning. It said the processing plant would be located in the lower Shepherds Valley, "strategically sited to leverage natural topography, thereby minimising potential impacts from noise, light, dust, and visibility". Its tailings dam would be built to the highest safety standards, including resilience to a 1-in-10,000 year seismic event, it said, and the company described the work to support its consent application as "one of the most intensive and comprehensive studies ever conducted on the Dunstan Mountains". Several key ecological reports were still underway and the company planned to lodge its application "at the earliest opportunity".
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Proposed Central Otago goldmine opponents ramp up campaign
By Katie Todd of RNZ Opponents of a proposed Central Otago goldmine have ramped up their campaign this week, with public meetings in Dunedin and Wānaka. Australian company Santana Minerals has signalled plans to seek a fast-track permit for a mine between Bendigo and Ophir, where it estimated it could extract gold worth $4.4 billion. Lobby group Sustainable Tarras Inc raised concerns about the mine's visibility on the landscape - particularly the inclusion of one large, 1000x850m open pit mine, three smaller satellite pits and a tailings dam. The group also expressed concerns about large quantities of cyanide being stored upstream of the Clutha River, and the potential impact the project would have on the region's tourism and viticulture. Chair Suze Keith said about 50 people turned up in Dunedin on Tuesday and more than 100 had registered for the meeting in Wānaka on Thursday night. Speakers included academics, environmental advocates and Labour Party MP for Dunedin Rachel Booking. Ms Keith said the idea of the meetings was "to make a bit of noise". "We don't think that a project of this scale and of its nature is well suited to fast-tracking decision-making," she said. "It might make the decisions come out quickly, but we've got 10 years of operation of this thing and then we've got the perpetual liability of a toxic tailings dam." Santana Minerals has held its own public drop-in sessions at Tarras and Cromwell to discuss the project, with two more planned in coming weeks. The company said the fast-track application aimed to accelerate decision-making, "but it did not override the requirements of the Resource Management Act or other applicable legislation". Keith said the process had fuelled concerns about limited public input. "People are really interested to understand where it is and what it comprises, because a goldmine is not just a mess of a open hole on the ground, it's got a whole lot of other moving parts to it," she said. "What are the implications for the immediate area and the wider area in terms of what it would mean if it does go ahead?" Santana Minerals said the proposed mine was expected to have low visibility, due to surrounding landforms, and environmental considerations were "central" to project planning. It said the processing plant would be located in the lower Shepherds Valley, "strategically sited to leverage natural topography, thereby minimising potential impacts from noise, light, dust, and visibility". Its tailings dam would be built to the highest safety standards, including resilience to a 1-in-10,000 year seismic event, it said, and the company described the work to support its consent application as "one of the most intensive and comprehensive studies ever conducted on the Dunstan Mountains". Several key ecological reports were still underway and the company planned to lodge its application "at the earliest opportunity".
