Hut Consent History

Understanding of Hut Consent History based on club documents as 2021

WDC = Waitomo District Council

1969 HTG Society Incorporation

22/08/73 HTG gets title to Lot 1Plan S.12632

14/12/73 WDC consents to sale of unused portion of unformed road to HTG

12/08/74 Letter from WDC re HTG application for Club building erection, land zoned for rural so Club needs to make application for Specified Departure in terms of Section 35 of Town and Country Planning Act, 1973

06/08/74 HTG makes Application for Specified Departure

16/10/74 Letter from HTG legal firm (Lamb, Gunson & Co.) confirming they were advised by the County Clerk at the Council on Thursday 10 October that the application for departure had been approved, subject to the siting of the building on the property being approved by council

05/12/75 WDC realigns Waitomo Road and offers piece of stopped road to HTG

12/11/76 Letter from WDC legal firm confirming acceptance of HTG purchase (payment of 2 years) of piece of road, WDC confirm intent to legally stop the road, local objection raised by Green family

13/06/83 Unformed road legally stopped by WDC

22/01/86 Transfer of title from WDC to HTG for end of road section (Section 37 Block X Orahiri)

1986 Extraordinary General Meeting to approve proposed hut developments: move single persons hut from Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station, relocate bunks from one hut and create new kitchen / living areas

25/06/90 Drainage plans for storage block extensions finalised

03/12/91 Drainage Plan has handwritten Permit No. 2349 noted on it

04/06/93 WDC Building Consent 930125 issued for "install space heater"

19/07/93 Code Compliance Certificate issued for consent 930125

12/03/97 WDC issues Statement of Fitness for HTG Group Lodge, intended use stated as ACCOMMODATION

01/11/97 Letter from WDC re Club’s Building Consent Application BC970092 querying disabled access and fire escape

24/04/97 Letter from WDC re Club’s Building Consent Application BC970092 confirming that as new work involves utility storage in annex to main buildings, it would be unreasonable to require provision of additional features. It’s worth noting the final paragraph: “Please consider that any further building alterations in either of the main buildings will probably entail the provision of a full range of accessible facilities.”

28/04/97 WDC Building consent 970092 issued for water tower and storage room

1999? Undated Building Consent made to WDC for HTG Group Lodge rear deck construction, copy returned stamped as approved. Plan submitted with this shows all buildings.

07/12/99 WDC Building Consent 990254 issued for deck

01/04/04 Letter from WDC stating that no Code of Compliance Certificate issued for water tower and storage room - consent will lapse if not obtained

Records end

Jane McLaren tried to request the WDC copy of the LIM (Oct 2021) for the hut but the electronic system can’t find any records linking to any of the lots, address or legal description. If our file has gone missing this may be why the planner was asking all the questions about land use.

Clearly we can prove that legally HTG got the land use change consented and that WDC knows it was being used as accommodation, but we may have some future building consent issues if they find those files and we didn’t get CCC certs (and possibly a building consent for the single persons hut, as there’s no mention of that in the records). I do think WDC would have picked that up when the storage rooms went in though, so hopefully there was one issued. Accessibility access to the dorm block probably needs to be considered for the building consent application for the toilets though.