Auckland residents unable to stop telco towers being built near their properties

Auckland residents are getting an unwelcome surprise, finding out five-storey telco towers are being built outside their properties - with nothing they can do about it.

From 8 October, amendments to the Resource Management Act mean such towers can be built without resource consent, and therefore without public consultation.

Residents spoken to by RNZ are livid the imposing towers will be erected on their quiet residential streets, with no recourse or compensation available to them.

Earlier this month, a neighbour informed North Shore resident Lisa John that a 16m telco tower was all but certain to be built on the berm directly in front of her home of eight years, on Torbay's Salem Place. It was the first she had heard of it.

"I was absolutely furious. There's going to be a 16-metre pole right in our front property with a massive power box," she said.

"I didn't know anything about it. I contacted Housing New Zealand because this is a Kainga Ora property and they told me that my housing manager did not know a single thing [about what was going on]. She said that she hadn't heard anything either and it was best for me to contact the council. And I tried contacting council, heard nothing from them."

Peter lives across the road and was gobsmacked to learn the tower can be built without any public consultation .

"These guys are coming in and just going for it, and we seem to have little in the way of a say in the matter."

Like other residents spoken to by RNZ, Peter was worried about what it will do to property values in the area - not to mention his tranquil view.

"We were quite shocked to find out the position and the height and everything else and the manner in which the letter was written to us is that this is a done deal, there was going to be no consultation, this is going in and we get no say in the matter."

On nearby Cliff Road, residents have also just been informed that a 17m tower will be installed on their quiet, leafy street.

The resident whose berm the tower is to be built on was still processing the news and didn't want to speak publicly, but said we could say she was "brassed off, to say the least" about the project.

Derrick from across the road was not happy either.

"It's going to be an eyesore ... and there's going to be a constant hum from the box at the bottom of it and it's going to soar into the sky above all the trees and everyone from the whole area will be able to see it."

He said he felt "extremely annoyed".

"There's been no consultation and I just feel betrayed by the Government really."

He said he was aware of the legislative change, but not that it meant that such projects could go ahead without consultation.

"We definitely need options for consultation, especially if it's something that's going to make such a big difference to the actual area. And also it's probably going to affect all the house prices. If someone's potentially looking at a place to purchase and there's this massive great tower in front of them I think it's gonna put them off."

And a tower could be coming to a street near you.

Auckland Council provided RNZ with a list of 29 applications related to cell towers lodged since 8 October, which include multiple applications for towers up to 20 metres tall in residential neighbourhoods.

Eleven of the projects, including the two Torbay towers, are being carried out by Canadian-owned infrastructure company Connexa.

Council documents show the applications are listed as being "processed", but Albany Ward Councillor John Watson said that under the new legislation, it's all but certain they will go ahead.

"If they fit within these new ... generous zone standards, it's a permitted activity and that's nation-wide and that effectively bypasses the need for a local council resource consent and the council has to issue the certificate. So yeah, it's game over."

He said residents should absolutely have an opportunity to have their say about something so significant being built on their streets, but the council was powerless to intervene.

"These are significant semi-industrial structures -- 16 meters with associated panelling and cabinetry, and they're imposing.

"The very notion that one can just effectively be installed outside your house or between neighbours without anything other than a kind of cursory notice that it's happening just doesn't seem quite right to me."

RNZ has been trying to find out how many new telco towers will be built around the country since the new rules came into force earlier this month.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which is in charge of the legislative changes, said it doesn't hold that information.

"MBIE's role relates to the regulatory settings for telecommunications infrastructure," an MBIE statement said.

Spark, which sold all of its cell sites to Connexa last year, provided a statement which said increasing demand is placing pressure on existing cell sites. Each site has a finite amount of capacity shared and can become constrained as usage increases.

"Across New Zealand, mobile usage continues to grow rapidly and has shifted from primarily calls and texts to more data‑intensive activities like streaming, sharing content and using apps. As a result, demand on mobile networks continues to increase each year."

Connexa, which is behind the Torbay towers, said its planned network expansion includes hundreds of additional sites over the next eight years to meet New Zealand's growing connectivity needs.

"A permitted activity is not subject to the formal public notification and submissions process associated with a resource consent application. However, the absence of a statutory notification requirement does not mean there is no community engagement," the company said in a statement.

"We acknowledge that new telecommunications infrastructure of this nature is noticeable within a residential environment and understand why those living in the surrounding area may have questions about the chosen locations. However, to provide effective coverage and capacity, mobile infrastructure needs to be located within the communities it serves."

It said construction on the Torbay towers is scheduled to commence in late November.