PAPATOETOE PLANNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 246, 18 October 1927, Page 8

PAPATOETOE PLANNING.

SCHEME PUT IN HAND.

EVERY ACRE AVAILABLE.

A SELF CONTAINED AREA.

Recent investigations in connection with the town-planning of Papatoetoe have shown that the district, with an area of 1267 acres, has fifty miles of contour lines, and every acre is available for treatment in any new town scheme. To consider the various aspects of local town-planning, a meeting was held in the Papatoetoe Town Hall last evening.

Mr. A. W. Hall, chairman of the Town Board, said that the board had been convinced of the need of a scheme because of the difficulties met with in dealing with the roading of a number of subdivisions. Two or three in the centre of the town had to be held up for a time in order that the location of new roads might receive fuller consideration. The preparation of a provisional plan would occupy about nine months, and when the plan had been approved the Town Board would take the necessary steps to form certain roads that could not be put through by private property owners. The questions of compensation and betterment would receive attention.

Mr. E. V. Blake, who had been appointed town-planner of the district, in the course of an illustrated address, said that Papatoetoe had a faulty system of cross-communication, and numerous roads and streets were without an exit. Although the recreation ground was one upon which the town could pride itself, there was the disadvantage that it was situated on the main traffic route between Auckland and the South. Special reference was made to the treatment of the area near the railway station, where a small block of Government dwellings had been built close to a scenic reserve. Papatoetoe was in a "satellite group" in; regard to its planning, being just outside the boundary of the Auckland metropolitan area, and the matter of linking up the town roads with the roads in the Papatoetoe riding of the County was one that would require to be dealt with in co-operation with the Manukau County Council.

ijjj. F. M. Waters, chairman of the Manukau County Council, said that the county had an area of 250 square miles, and the extent to which co-operation could be made effective was at present uncertain. He considered it necessary that a portion of the riding adjoining the town district should be treated in a general scheme. At the conclusion of the meeting Mr. ■Blake remarked that it would be necessarv as earlv as possible to set up a fund for the "development of the recreation reserves of Papatoetoe, and offered £50 as an initial contribution. He was, accorded a vote of thanks, _ .