Valuation Of Raceway Land Reduced

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31678, 14 May 1968, Page 18

Valuation Of Raceway Land Reduced

An objection by Addington Raceway, Ltd, to the Government valuation on 93 acres of land leased by the company from the North Canterbury Hospital Board has been upheld by the Canterbury Land Valuation Committee. The committee, in a judgment released yesterday, has reduced the Government valuation of the land from $210,000 to $151,000. The committee, comprising Mr K. H. J. Headifen, S.M., and Messrs R. A. Collie and T. S. Maskew, heard the objection on April 1. Mr P. T. Mahon appeared for Addington Raceway, Ltd. Mr C. M. Roper appeared for the Valuer-General, defendant in the hearing, and Mr G. H. Gould, appeared for the North Canterbury Hospital Board, owner of the land, in support of the valuation made by the Valuer-General The raceway had leased the land from the hospital board for 10 years from November. 1947, with successive rights of renewal for 10 years, but so that the original term and renewed terms shall not exceed 100 years from November, 1947, the committee’s judgment says. The lease restricts the use of the land to trotting meetings or other sporting or recreational activities.

The valuation of the land was unimproved value, and the Valuer-General valued the land at $l6OO on acre. Principles Followed

“The Valuer-General in the present case has complied with the principles of land valuing and, as we understand the argument, this is not disputed. What is in dispute is the amount of the valuation and in particular the amount valued as the potential of the land consequent on a change of zoning,” the judgment says. The total value, $210,000, was made up of $151,800, at $l6OO per acre, plus $58,200 for chance of change of zoning. The committee said the lease of. the land would assume grave proportions in the view of a prospective purchaser of the land, when the chances of a change in zoning of the land were considered. A potential purchaser could envisage a change of zoning to residential, proceed to envisage 433 sections in a subdivision of the land, and pay an appropriate sum for that potential use of the land. That was the course adopted by the Valuer-General in valuing the land. Potential Restricted

A potential purchaser could, second, envisage a change of zoning into partly industrial and partly residential, because of the proposed motorway, as suggested by the Waimairi County Council. The purchaser would include compensation in his calculations

if part of the land was taken for a motorway. Third, a potential purchaser could proceed on the basis of getting only part of the land changed to residential. “But in each case the potential of this land is restricted by the existing use provisions in the Town and Country Planning Act and in considering this any potential purchaser would certainly consider the existence of a lease in determining what sum, if any, he would pay for a chance of a change in the zoning designation of this land.

“Such a purchaser would be faced with the fact that for a considerable number of years this land has been used for trotting purposes and a raceway; ttat at present there is in existence a lease which is most likely to continue for another 80 years if the provisions of the renewal clauses are exercised—and the evidence does not suggest otherwise. “The committee is of the unanimous opinion that the sum of $58,200 which was added to the valuation by the Valuer-General for a chance of change in zoning should be deleted from such valuation entirely.” The committee found that the valuation giving the unimproved value of the land as $l6OO an acre had been properly arrrived at. The committee therefore fixed the valuation of the land at $151,800.