KEY POINTS:
Auckland City Council will overstep its legal authority if it brings in a proposed bylaw to ban existing billboards, says the Property Council.
Under the draft bylaw, 205 of the 307 billboards in the Auckland City isthmus must go, and about 75 per cent of signs.
But at the second day of hearings into a billboard and signs bylaws review the Property Council's national director, Connal Townsend, said the city council could not infringe on existing property rights.
He said proposals assumed that the bylaws gave additional power but they could deal only with future proposals to put up signs.
Mr Townsend said it was the opinion of the law firm Russell McVeagh that the bylaws were unlawful in their attempt to interfere with existing use rights.
The opinion says existing-use rights are property rights protected by common law and can be removed only by the clear and express words of law passed by the Government.
No such express power or intention exists in the Local Government Act, says the opinion from Russell McVeagh lawyers Christian Whata and James Gardner-Hopkins.
It also says the act has no provision for compensation as should be expected if existing rights were to be substantially affected.
Mr Townsend said he had been advised that Parliament would be reluctant to pass a local bill to empower any city council bylaw to remove existing signage.
The opinion expresses concern that the draft bylaws detract from the granting of a resource consent under the Resource Management Act.
The council granted use rights for existing billboards and signs either by dispensation, resource consent or permitted-activity status.
Mr Townsend said it was preferable for signage to be subject to the District Plan and Resource Management Act.
This worked well for other city councils.
The Property Council would not do "anything crazy" such as take out a court injunction against any draft bylaws.
Instead, it would back the council if it consulted the outdoor advertising industry and sought its own independent legal opinion on the Russell McVeagh one.
The council has referred that opinion to law firm Simpson Grierson.
The chairman of the billboards panel at the hearings, Councillor Richard Northey, said the city council was committed to being consistent with the law and recognition of property rights.
He said last night the council that would seek quality legal advice on the extent of its obligations.
The committee was taking the concerns of property owners seriously.
