Small sections of Bay View Rd, Mornington Rd and Chadwick St in Dunedin will be amalgamated into private properties after property owners applied to the city council to legalise historic encroachments.
Councillors agreed this week to allow frontage on the properties, officially parts of roads at this stage, to be joined with the properties' private titles. Property owners will pay the higher of either the cost of stopping the relevant area of the road or the value of the land area involved, according to a contestable valuation completed by a valuer chosen by the council.
There was also agreement to stop Montgomery Ave alongside the Water of Leith, near the University of Otago campus, to allow for widening of the river as part of flood protection works.
Cr Lee Vandervis voted against the latter, questioning what was in it for the DCC or the people who used the road and asking why the other side of the river could not be widened instead. Staff explained the other side of river was occupied largely by private properties. Works were fully consented years ago and there was agreement between all parties involved for the road stoppage.
