The Press WEDNESDAY' JULY 1, 1964. Planning The City Centre

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30481, 1 July 1964, Page 14

The Press WEDNESDAY' JULY 1, 1964. Planning The City Centre

Has the City Council sufficient legal powers to promote the harmonious rebuilding, of Cathedral square? The question is raised by the application by the Christchurch Transport Board (to come before the town-planning committee this week) for permission to construct a parking building exceeding the height allowed by the city ordinance. Because of the precedents set by the Government Life and Bank of New Zealand buildings the committee may be disinclined to reject the application. But even if it did reject the application it would be able to limit only the height of the building. Would the committee or the council have any control over the purpose of the building and its general design? As to the first point, recent studies have shown that a worse place for a parking building could hardly be found than the most congested part of the city. Ultimately, citizens will have to pay dearly in traffic adjustments for this big car park. As to design, car-parking buildings are usually unattractive, and the City Council can do little more than hope that this will be an exception where an exception is most needed.

The only point in these forebodings is the hope that the City Council may be awakened to the urgency of doing something, on principles long accepted overseas, to preserve the charm and character of Christchurch. If nothing can be done about the three buildings finished, begun, or planned, that is all the mflre reason why some authority should be able to insist that buildings in Cathedral square are in harmony with each other and with their setting. Within a few years the State Advances Corporation will be building, and then the Post Office: Others may follow suit quickly. Planning should not in any way restrict the rights of land-owners to make the most economic use of their properties; it could, indeed, more often be positively helpful to them by ensuring that they have a reasonable place preserved for them in a logical pattern.

Harmonious planning should not be confined to Cathedral square. Victoria square, with its town hall, will become smother important civic centre; and haphazard development should not be permitted on the south and east sides, nor, preferably, on the length of Colombo street connecting the two squares. Probably supervision should be vested in an independent authority (with statutory powers) able to inspire confidence in its judgment and integrity; but supervision there should be.