Thorndon Heritage - Overview

Ascot Terrace houses, Thorndon

Late in 2008, the Council began a review of the planning rules for Wellington's suburban centres and residential areas. This was part of a 10-year review of the city's town-planning rule book - the District Plan.

Study of the Thorndon Area

As part of the review, the Council commissioned a study of Thorndon to identify groups of residential buildings with significant heritage values.

Thorndon Heritage Report (745Kb PDF)
The Historic Context and Heritage Values of Thorndon (113Kb PDF)

Thorndon Consultation

The proposed management of the special character of Thorndon's Inner Residential areas has been discussed in several phases of community consultation.

Key themes that emerged from the consultation process include:

widespread agreement that Thorndon's heritage is important
ability for owners to be able to adapt their homes to take advantage of modern technology
importance of local involvement in the decision-making process
the need to streamline the resource consent processes for minor works
the need for better advice and information for owners of heritage properties.

Strategy & Policy Committee Meeting August 2010

On 5 August 2010, the Council's Strategy and Policy Committee considered recommendations for an approach to managing Thorndon's heritage values. The Council adopted the recommendations in the report. For more information on the report's recommendations, see:

Report to the Strategy and Policy Committee Meeting - 05.08.10 (991Kb PDF)

Thorndon Advisory Group

In November 2010, a Thorndon Advisory Group was set up to help the project. Members of the Advisory Group include representatives of community organisations based in Thorndon, the NZ Historic Places Trust and professionals with experience in working on residential buildings in Thorndon. The Advisory Group met over a 6-month period and provided input and comment on the preparation of the Thorndon Place-based Study, which was one of the actions adopted by the SPC meeting of August 2010.

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Thorndon Heritage - Advisory Group Meetings

In May 2011, a design guideline workshop was held that looked at a range of different examples or models of design guidelines from both New Zealand and overseas The results of the workshop were included in the following report.

Report of Design Guidelines Workshop - May 2011 (289Kb PDF) | Text version (1.18Mb RTF)

Report on the Thorndon Heritage Project

On 23 June 2011, the Strategy and Policy Committee considered a report which included the Place-based Study along with recommendations for managing the inner residential areas of Thorndon. The resolutions adopted by the Council included changes to the report's recommendations. The Council agreed to adopt the following key items in the report:

Prepare a plan change that applies the Heritage Area policies and rules, as outlined in Chapters 20 and 21B of the District Plan, to the existing Thorndon Character Area.
Prepare a plan change that introduces a new design guide for Thorndon into the District Plan. The new design guide will:
- incorporate the findings of the 11 May design guide workshop, as outlined in section 5.1 of the above Report on Design Guidelines Workshop.
- include a clear purpose statement about how the design guide is to be used.
An understanding that the development of the draft plan change will involve further consultation, which will include the Thorndon Residents' Association.

For a full report and minutes of this meeting, see:

Strategy and Policy Committee Meeting - 23.06.11

Review of the District Plan

At the Strategy and Policy Committee meeting of 6 October 2011, Councillors considered a paper on the review of the whole of the Wellington City District Plan. This was followed by a workshop for councillors and officers to discuss the review of the District Plan.

Next Steps

In February 2012, the Strategy and Policy Committee will be making a decision on the future review of the District Plan. Part of this decision will involve reassessing the strategic importance of the current District Plan work programme, including the Thorndon Heritage Area Plan Change and the Thorndon Design Guidelines.

We will give an update on the future of the Thorndon projects following the February 2012 meeting.

More Information

Vivien Rickard
Principal Heritage Advisor

Phone:	(04) 803 8122
Email:	vivien.rickard