Planning For The City

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31831, 8 November 1968, Page 10

Planning For The City

The revised district planning scheme for the City of Christchurch lays considerable emphasis on renewing the central urban area. The council’s statement on parking, its proposals to encourage commercial builders to provide more attractive public amenities in exchange for the right to add floor space to their new buildings beyond the ordinary limits of the planning code, and the new zoning classifications should increase the pace of renewal The council and its advisers are not neglecting the interests of the outer suburbs and the outlying commercial centres. The scheme, as a whole, takes full account of the need for a variety of residential and commercial development and seems to give ample opportunity to accommodate all kinds of public demand. The transport section of the scheme attempts to ensure that all parts of the city will be linked efficiently. The benefits of such planning should be shared by all parts of Christchurch, including those beyond the boundaries of the city.

In this scheme citizens will see much of the master transportation plan of the Regional Planning Authority given substance. The council’s proposals to extend and improve roads and to build new bridges closely follow the master plan for communications which is now before all the councils in the region. The purpose of the master plan is to ensure that central and local authorities co-operate in producing a single, unified network of roads and construct their works according to an agreed programme. The Christchurch City Council’s scheme appears to make no notable departures from the Regional Planning Authority’s proposals. Indeed, the first stage of the road construction programme is already being carried out and, apart from minor differences in the later stages of the plan, the council apparently is satisfied that the regional scheme is well devised to meet the needs of the metropolitan area as far as they can be foreseen.

This first five-yearly review of the district scheme usefully changes the zoning classifications in a way that should make the policy of the planners more intelligible to the average citizen. While the council does not expect all the areas zoned as “ residential ’* to be used within the 20 years of the scheme it expects the areas near the centre of the city to be developed first. This does not mean that the council has changed its opinion on development; it should mean that redevelopment will be hastened. Prescribed population densities range from 30 persons to the acre—about the normal suburban rate of occupancy —to 100 persons to the acre. In classifying areas the council has no doubt had regard for both the existing character of each zone and the expected future demand for various kinds of living space. Its conclusion is that the number of citizens wanting to live in the most spacious classification will be double the number wanting to live in any of the five more populous zones. Even when the whole of the residential area is occupied, only one person in 18 is expected to live in zones with a maximum density of 100 persons to the acre.

Public demand may change. Within 20 years it should not require substantial departures from this classification unless, for example, the transport section of the scheme should not be fulfilled and the public demand for living space nearer the centre of the city should increase markedly. The willingness of all councils within the region to enforce the industrial zoning recommended by the Regional Planning Authority should also affect the demand for living space. By itself this is a good illustration of the need for regional planning. Without it, no part of the urban area could put into effect an efficient town plan.