Road Encroachment Policy

The Council's Road Encroachment and Sale Policy 2011 covers the regulation and management of the use of legal road for private purposes.

The policy has five principles:

Protection of rights
The public have unimpeded access to legal road for free pedestrian and traffic movement.
Protection of community amenity
The road corridor adds to streetscape value and environmental and ecology purposes.
Public and private benefit
Unformed legal road can have significant public benefit by providing space for utilities and adding amenity value.
Disposal of assets
Wellington's topography and legal road layout means that some parts of the legal road may never be needed for Council business.
Transparency
The public can see how encroachment and road stopping applications are evaluated.

Encroachment Types

As well as road encroachments the policy also covers residential and commercial applications for airspace, subsoil and Town Belt encroachments.

Airspace encroachment
Includes balconies, conservatories or eaves that encroach into airspace above legal road.
Subsoil encroachment
Includes building foundations, underground parking spaces and underground tanks.
Town Belt encroachment
Applications for encroachments onto Town Belt land are not permitted.

Department Details:
Encroachments