Shed owners rock the boat

Dan Alpe's shed was heavily modified by a former owner and he fears inspectors will want it back as it was. Picture / Greg Bowker

Hobson Bay boatshed owners say they're fed up with "Gestapo-type" tactics to enforce a rule the sheds can be used only for boats.

Owners say few of the 17 sheds are used for boat storage and maintenance - their only legal use under Auckland Regional Council rules.

They say the bay is silted up and boat ramps rotted away years ago.

"The boats they built to store disappeared decades ago," said owner Geoff Parsonage.

He has written to Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard asking him to pressure the ARC into allowing owners to lease the sheds to artists, yacht brokers or antique shops.

That would encourage owners to spend money on buildings that currently resemble "a Third World slum", he said.

Former owner Phil Hart said he renovated number 15 so he could stay overnight on visits to Auckland from his Huntly home but sold it for $180,000 this year because of the complicated manoeuvres required when inspectors arrived.

"I'd load all my furniture into a truck and have it driven around the block until they were gone," he said.

"I'm not for a minute suggesting they be used as apartments but they should be able to be used by artists or yacht brokers."

Owner Dan Alpe said he was not looking forward to inspectors arriving early next month because his shed was heavily modified by a former owner.

"I know what they're going to say, they're going to ask me to undo what was already there when I bought it," he said.

But ARC heritage resource officer Robert Brassey said under a conservation plan adopted by the ARC last year, the sheds must be used for boats.

They were on coastal Crown land zoned public open space and had heritage value.

"If you're talking about using them as residential, then that can be carried out anywhere; you don't need public open space."

The last inspection was in 2003 and at that time a majority were being used for boating, Mr Brassey said, although in some cases this was "clearly auxiliary to an alternative predominant use and thus in breach of resource consents".

ARC parks and heritage committee chairwoman Sandra Coney said the boatsheds were known and loved.

"Trying to use them for another purpose would be bound to lead to modifications and they would lose their heritage value," she said.

The sheds date back to the 1930s and have been used by some of New Zealand's most prominent families and businessmen.

Owners pay about $700 a year in rates and licences to use the sheds and can sell them.