Ruling to affect land values

BY MARTY SHARPE

The public's right to know about possible land contamination will come at a price to thousands of landowners after a landmark ruling by the Ombudsmen's Office.

The ruling, which will mean the location of thousands of potentially contaminated sites being made public, will affect land values, according to both the Real Estate Institute and Local Government New Zealand.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council has been forced to reveal the locations of 3099 potentially contaminated sites, after the ombudsman ruled public safety was more important than the potential effects on property prices.

The ruling was made in response to a complaint by The Dominion Post after the council refused to make public a list of the sites under an Official Information Act request because it believed it could affect property prices.

Environment Minister Nick Smith has made it clear he expects other councils to follow suit, allowing anyone to see if sites are potentially contaminated by hazardous substances.

Regional council chairman Alan Dick said the council would discuss how the information was to be made public in a closed meeting on Friday. Very few of the sites were residential properties, he said.

The Real Estate Institute's Wellington region president, Euon Murrell, said notifying people of potential contamination was "dangerous ground".

"It puts the suspicion in someone's mind that a site is contaminated. There should be strong evidence that a site may be contaminated before this is done."

He said the huge impact on sales was exemplified by a failed sale he had in Porirua early this year.

"I had a piece of land under offer and the buyers pulled out after finding out it was potentially contaminated. The fact that it was listed made them run a mile. They didn't do any checks at all, they just ran," Mr Murrell said.

A similar issue caused a furore in Auckland in 2004 when Auckland City Council decided to note potential contamination on about 5000 Land Information Memorandum reports.

Landowners objected to the information being added to their Lims as it would affect property prices. The council sought Crown Law Office advice and concluded it could make the information available to interested parties without noting it on Lim reports.

The ombudsman's ruling sets a precedent that will circumvent the need to apply for a Lim report to discover if a site is potentially contaminated.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule, who is also president of Local Government NZ, said making the lists public would "definitely have an effect on property values". "The issue now is to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible."

Contaminated land expert Gordon Jackman said "there's no question potential contamination should be noted on a Lim report".

Mr Jackman, author of a book on sawmill contamination, The Deadly Legacy, said every district plan should have maps identifying sites of potential contamination.

Environment Waikato said yesterday that since the ombudsman's decision, it was deciding how to issue its list of 2000 potentially contaminated sites.

Councils' use of contamination data varies

Some local bodies note potential contamination on land information, or Lim, reports, but others do not.

The Hastings council received Hawke's Bay Regional Council's report on potential contamination when it was completed in 1995 but did not note potential contamination on any Lim reports as it did not believe the report was "robust", Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said.

Neighbouring Napier City Council did note potential contamination on Lim reports.

Mr Yule said his council had gone back to the regional council several times between 1998 and 2003 trying to get verified information but nothing had been done.

"We sought a whole lot of assurances which we never got. The regional council got this list in 1995. The validity of the list and verification of it should have been done then," he said.

Regional council chairman Alan Dick said he was unaware of past requests by Hastings District Council.

- © Fairfax NZ News