HOTEL PLAN OPPOSED

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30561, 2 October 1964, Page 9

HOTEL PLAN OPPOSED

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 1. The objections of more than 200 people to a proposed hotel on Oriental Parade were heard yesterday at a chaotic public meeting of the Wellington City Council’s town planning committee. The meeting lasted nearly five hours. It got off to a bad start a little after 3 p.m.

at the Town Hall with lawyers representing objectors arguing with councillors about procedure. By the time the hearing was finished about 9 p.m., the public had booed the committee; the chairman, Cr. W. G. Morrison, had warned that he would eject people or close the meeting. The committee has reserved its decision. The application before the committee was from Ronald J. Evans, Ltd., for a fourstorey hotel block fronting Oriental parade. Above

would be a nine-storey tower block, and on the Prince street level, a five-storey block. Provision would be made for 19 cars in a parking basement on Oriental parade and for 28 cars in a similar basement in Prince street. The hotel would rise 134 feet from Oriental Bay and 50 feet above Prince street. After Mr Evans had described the project, the chairman ruled that the hearing was not a court and no crossexamination should be allowed. “We are just a committee of laymen trying to get at the facts,” he said. It was for the objectors to state their objections, not for the promoter to defend his plans. The main objections raised by residents were on the grounds of traffic congestion in the narrow streets on the slopes of Mount Victoria; a substantial drop in propertyvalues through loss of sunshine and views; and the undesirable effects of a licensed hotel in a residential neighbourhood. When the chairman disallowed questioning, objectors shouted and booed the committee. Finally, the objectors were told the committee would reserve its decision until it had made a detailed study of the site.