The Road Encroachment and 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 and Sale Policy (934KB PDF) | Text version (325KB RTF)