FLATS POPULAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 64, 16 March 1936, Page 5

FLATS POPULAR.

DANGER OF SLUMS. A NEW SYDNEY PROBLEM. DRASTIC REGULATIONS. Sydney, like the majority of the world's great cities, is rapidly becoming a city of flat dwellers. Considerable perturbation has arisen in some quarters at the possible growth of a slum "flat-land" as multi-family dwellings increase. Drastic changes in the regulations to control the erection of flats in the metropolis and suburbs are contained ill a special report to the Government by the Building Regulations Advisory Committee which was set up by the Government to submit recommendations for the better control of residential flat building 3. Several classes of flats are provided for in the recommendations, with a standard minimum size of ground area and distance from neighbouring buildings for each class.

Municipal councils, some of which arc seeking to eliminate flats altogether from defined areas, may decide to which class various parts of their municipality shall belong. Councils, under the recommendations, will also have the power to regulate the heights of flat buildings with regard to the effect on the landscape. It is provided that the minimum area on allotments on which flats may be built shall be determined in relation to the number of habitable rooms the building is to contain.

Naturally criticism of the proposed regulations has not been lacking in certain building and real estate quarters which have found flats a remunerative speculation.