Thinking of renovating and/or extending a villa or bungalow? Before you reach for your phone and start a Pinterest page and fill it with images of beautifully manicured front gardens, or modern take on a heritage interior, you should start at the beginning.
While there are a lot of villas and bungalows in the central suburbs of Auckland, some fall under the Special Character and Heritage Overlays in the Operative Unitary Plan. Within this overlay are different sub-categories which may restrict your options further, a quick search on the Auckland Council GEOMaps will confirm the overlay and refer you to the specific requirements.
The majority of the villas and bungalows in the Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Herne Bay areas that fall within the Special Character and Heritage Overlay have to follow the same rules, that is to keep the street front façade as close to the original as possible, in some cases this could mean bringing it back by removing years of additions and alterations. Additions or extensions can usually be made to the rear of the home, where they are not easily visible from the street.
To understand the implications of working within the Special Character and Heritage Overlay, it is important to understand the following:
All exterior works will trigger a Resource Consent, whether the work is proposed to the front, side or exterior of the house.
- Street-facing changes are generally not allowed, or only minor changes that are in keeping with the original house design can be achieved. Council can also look at the immediate neighbouring properties to either side of the house for precedence. This can work to your advantage if a neighbour has been granted approval for something not in keeping with the character of the street.
- Different coverages and boundary setbacks are used to the Unitary Plan zone that the house is in. Since we are dealing with an ‘overlay’, the site will still fall under one of many Residential Zones under the Unitary Plan. The rules for this zone will need to be considered, as well as the SCAR zone rules, and all non-compliances with one or both zone requirements will need to be addressed, justified and mitigated. An example of this is the side yard boundary setbacks, which under most of the Residential zones are 1m minimum, however under the SCAR overlay this is 1.2m minimum. Naturally this will have implications on amount of work the consultants such as the architect and the planner will have to do to prepare the Resource Consent application.
- Chimneys that are visible from the street may not be demolished. In some cases where the house has more than one chimney, an argument can be made to demolish the ‘secondary’ chimney, or the one that is least visible from the street. Where the original chimney is in a bad structural state and is at risk of falling Council can request for it to be taken down, brick by brick, a new structural skin installed, and the original bricks be reinstated. This is done at the owner’s cost.
- Exterior materials and joinery that are visible from the street will need to match the existing weatherboards and timber joinery. This can also extend to include any fret work or decorative finials that are traditionally found particularly on villas.
- Creating a garage underneath may be possible, if the original house, usually a villa, has been built at a higher level than the surrounding ground level. In some cases, the house will need to be raised higher to accommodate for the supporting structural elements as well as providing more height for better use of the space. This may be achieved but careful consideration will need to be given to the impact on the overall look of the villa, the immediate neighbouring properties, as well as the structural integrity of the house itself.
- Extending at the rear of the existing villa or bungalow is often less onerous, it will still require Council review and approval, however there is no requirement for the extension to match the heritage style of the house, unless it can be seen from the rear of the site, for example if the section backs on to another street, or public park. This will trigger an assessment by the Heritage team during the Resource Consent stage.
While this may feel like a lot of information to digest and get your head around to a layman, a good planner and architect will be able to highlight the restrictions and confidently work around them to ensure your expectations are managed while your brief is also met. But be prepared to have to make compromises on the brief, when it comes to dealing with the original part of the house, getting the basics done right, at the start, will put you on the right path to creating a beautiful home, with all the modern comforts you want to have inside, while maintaining the glamour and drama of the villa or humble and understated beauty of the bungalow. After all you did buy a heritage villa or bungalow because you like that style!
Noor Keary
Director
Nala Studio Architects
www.nala.co.nz
