Property owner James Murray said the modifications he made to the Christchurch City Council-owned land next door to his Gardiners Rd property in Harewood were made with good intentions.
"When I first purchased the section, there was old appliances and car parts and all that kind of stuff (on the council-owned land next door).
"So we tidied it up actually for the council.
"I’m not trying to do anything to make it look like our land at all."
About seven years ago, the couple developed 0.05ha of the wetland area next to their property, which is part of the council-owned reserve, increasing the size of their lawn.
They removed vegetation, built up the land, planted it with grass, constructed a fence and planted a hedge along the roadside.
The fence separates the entire lawn area from the road, but Murray says the public can still access the land through the fence gate if they want to.
The city council conducted a compliance investigation at the property in 2019 after discovering the modifications to the land, which were carried out without formal permission or resource consent.
A council spokesperson said: "The compliance officer was unable to fully quantify the extent of the breach, which also limited available enforcement options."
As a result, the compliance team’s only course of action at the time was to close the file in February 2020, the spokesperson said.
After a new compliance investigation in September last year reassessed the land, it was confirmed the wetland had been removed.
The couple must contribute financially to the wetland restoration plan and take the fence down.
"The Murrays will be required to cover costs for any modifications they made to the land," the council spokesperson said.
The spokesperson did not tell The Star how much the Murrays will need to pay to restore the wetland area as the cost has not been confirmed.
The Murrays are directors of MTC Equipment Ltd, which sells trailers and machine parts.
Murray said the city council-owned section was overgrown and often used for rubbish dumping.
He said this prompted him to ask the city council over the phone and by email if he could build the fence and turn the area into a lawn to help keep it tidy.
No one at the city council responded to his idea, Murray said. So he decided to carry out the modifications on his own.
"They (council) never got back to me. Nothing untoward has been done at all."
The city council has developed the Smacks Creek Riverbank Reserve Ecological Restoration Plan in response to the Murray’s unauthorised modifications.
The plan aims to restore the reserve to an "authentic patch of riverine forest and associated habitat".
Its purpose is the ecological restoration of the entire reserve, not just the section modified by the Murrays.
No work has been started on implementing the plan as the city council is waiting for funding to be confirmed.
But the city council spokesperson said the Murrays have started removing the hedging at the edge of the council-owned land.
