WELLINGTON City Council may lose control of waterfront development when the government passes the Foreshore and Seabed Bill.

The bill will turn ownership of the country’s seabed and foreshore, to the high tide mark, over to the Crown.

It also recognises customary rights for Maori, which may affect plans for a hotel on the Outer-T of Queens Wharf.

Chief operating manager Karen Wallace says the council is making a submission
concerning three areas of the bill.

"The big issue is the ownership of Lambton Harbour," she says.

Lambton Harbour is currently exempt from Crown ownership because of its special place in Wellington city. But its status under the new Bill is unclear, Wallace says.

"There are some areas of the bill where, if you put several lawyers in a room, you would get several interpretations. To avoid any doubt we are seeking to have a few words clarified."

The second area of concern is the future of council wharves and other structures on "bits and pieces" of foreshore that would be returned to the Crown.

"If there is a structure, such as a wharf, on land being returned to the Crown, we need to clarify that we can still have those things sitting there."

The third is the issue of customary rights.

"Where customary rights are proven the bill will require two different procedures for dealing with the same consent [under the Resource Management Act]," Wallace says.

"That seems unnecessarily complicated and we think it needs looking at."

Wallace says the proposed Marine Education Centre at Te Raekaihau is above the high-tide mark and will be unaffected by the new bill.

The proposed hotel on the Outer-T of Queens Wharf may not be so lucky.

"If the hotel goes ahead it will require a significant amount of money," says Wallace.

"If customary rights are proved, the developers may not be able to do a lot of what they want to."