TOWN PLANNING PROPOSALS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21961, 9 December 1936, Page 12

TOWN PLANNING PROPOSALS

THE CHRISTCHURCH SCHEME Si PROMISE OF FINALITY VERY SOON MAYOR TO CONFER WITH BOARD / “There is every prospect of finality being reached next week regarding the Christchurch town planning scheme,” stated the Mayor (Mr J. W. Beanland) to a reporter of “The Press” yesterday, in announcing that he would go to Wellington next Monday to meet the Town Planning Board. It is approximately three years since the Christchurch City Council forwarded its town planning scheme to the Town Planning Board for examination and approval, but differences of opinion between the board and the council on many matters have held up the operation of the scheme. Mr Beanland said that recent discussions had cleared up most of the difficulties, although the council’s objection to terraced houses was still under discussion. In some directions the board had met the council very satisfactorily, and had actually conceded more than was asked. There was every reason to believe that the whole matter would be settled very shortly. The council’s policy, to which exception has been taken by the Town Planning Board, is that each constituent dwelling of a terraced house must have a frontage of at least 40 feet, and that the section on which it stands must have an area of at least 24 perches. These restrictions were regarded as almost prohibitive, and were only a slight concession to the wishes of the Town Planning Board, which desired the inclusion in the scheme of provision for terraced houses similar in style to the tenement houses now being erected in many parts of Great Britain. The council objected to such buildings on the ground that they tended to congestion and the development of slum areas. Other matters that have been in dispute related to the construction of flats, the distinction between certain types of. flats and private houses, and the definition of industrial areas and shopping areas in certain districts. '