Our Road Encroachment & Sale Policy covers the regulation and management of the use of legal road for private purposes.
As well as road encroachments, the policy covers residential and commercial applications for:
- airspace encroachment – including balconies, conservatories and eaves that encroach into airspace above legal road
- subsoil encroachment – including building foundations, underground parking spaces and underground tanks
- Town Belt encroachment – applications for encroachments onto Town Belt land are not permitted.
The policy principles are:
- Protection of rights – The public have unimpeded access to legal road for free pedestrian and traffic movement.
- Protection of community amenity – The road corridor adds to streetscape value and environmental and ecology purposes.
- Public and private benefit – Unformed legal road can have significant public benefit by providing space for utilities and adding amenity value.
- Disposal of assets – Wellington's topography and legal road layout means that some parts of the legal road may never be needed for Council business.
- Transparency – The public can see how encroachment and road stopping applications are evaluated.
Road Encroachment & Sale Policy (934KB PDF) | Text version (325KB RTF)