The push to ban private helipads across the Hauraki Gulf has taken a litigious turn, with Waitamatā and Gulf Ward Councillor Mike Lee telling the Barrier Times he is prepared to take the government to court to break a months-long planning deadlock.
“Theoretically there could be a legal option under the mandamus sections of the Judicial Review Procedures Act 2016,” Lee told the BT. “In other words ask the High Court to direct the Minister to fulfill his statutory obligations.”
While Lee noted there is no guarantee a court would force the “right” decision, he argued the Minister would “have to have a very good reason indeed not to” act. The move follows frustration over RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop’s failure to sign off on a plan change that would make private helipads a prohibited activity in residential areas across the islands.
Councillors voted for the ban in July 2025, but the change has been sitting in limbo since December. Lee expressed deep skepticism about the delay, suggesting the government’s focus on “property rights” is being applied selectively. “I fear when this minister talks about ‘property rights’ he means the property rights of new developers not the property rights of long standing residents,” Lee told the Barrier Times. “The property rights of well-to-do new comers rather than those neighbours who will have to put up with the noise and other effects. So the property rights of a privileged few not the rights of neighbours to the peaceful enjoyment of their homes and properties.”
The push for a total ban gained significant momentum following the controversial decision in July 2025 to grant a helipad to former All Black Ali Williams and toy billionaire Anna Mowbray at their Westmere property. In that case, independent commissioners ruled that helicopter use was inherently associated with residential land use, a finding that sparked widespread public backlash and fears that such precedents would make it nearly impossible to block future applications.
The push for the ban in the Gulf islands has been largely driven by sentiment on Waiheke, where the number of consented helipads has reached 68. On Aotea, the situation is more nuanced; just 13 consents exist or are in progress in settlement areas, with little evidence of a groundswell of support for the ban, with many locals still viewing helicopters as vital infrastructure for the island’s remote properties.
Lee described the current oversight of local government plan changes by a Minister as “unprecedented,” warning that the delay is creating a “huge confusing muddle” for Resource Management. With the Hauraki Gulf Islands District Plan eventually slated for amalgamation into the Auckland Unitary Plan, Lee argued that a lack of action now could leave the islands in planning gridlock for years.
The Councillor plans to wait until May before deciding whether to pull the legal trigger. “I will exercise my own leverage by putting some pressure on the Minister if he continues to sit on this,” he said. Until that pressure bears fruit or a court intervenes, the Hauraki Gulf remains an open field for new helipad applications under the existing, more permissive rules.
