Re-Zoning Wanted For Halswell Rural Land

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31994, 22 May 1969, Page 12

Re-Zoning Wanted For Halswell Rural Land

Requests from 53 property owners for changes in rural A zoning to allow of subdivisions or the more flexible use of rural laid were heard by the Paparua County Council yesterday when it continued to take submissions on the Halswell district planning scheme.

All the requests were opposed by Mr K. Tyler, for the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority. He said that to re-zone from rural to residential or to permit five acre and 10 acre lots would tend to. cause closer settlement, contrary to the regional scheme.

The council, said Mr Tyler had rightly sought to protect good agricultural land. Servicing the land in question might lead to problems. There was urban-zoned land at Halswell for- another 2000 people. Re-zoning would be unwise said the Christchurch Drainage Board, in a general objection. Careful consideration should be given before anything was done that might lead to a demand for uneconomic sewer extensions. Mr I. J. S. Reeves, who appeared for 13 landowners in a block bounded by Quaifes Road, Sabys Road

and Halswell Junction Road, said th;y had always been under ' the impression that they could subdivide.

Some of them ha<T bought the land in this expectation and many were elderly people who had relied on subdivision for their retirement. The rural zoning prevented subdivision and in view of the hardship involved and the drop in value from rural zoning, subdivision should be allowed.

Mr Reeves said the land, close to Halswell township, was suited to urban use. There was a need for more residential sections, and with Watties proposed food processing plant employing up to 1000 people, this land was only two miles away. Modification wanted

Five objectors sought a modification of rural A zoning on land at Cashmere Road, Quaife Road and Hoon Hay Valley Road to permit of other than farm use, such as market gardening. One of these objectors, Mr I. S. Cameron, said that many houses built before the rural zoning was made, would not be able to be rebuilt if they were destroyed, but the chairman (Cr A. Y. Shuker) said the council would take a sympathetic view in such cases.

If rural A zoning was applied to his 43-acre farm at Cashmere Road, its value would fall from $47,000 to $25,000, said Mr A. G. Clark. The block was too small for an economic town milk farm but there was a ready demand at $9OO an acre for 10acre blocks.

Supporting Mr Clark, Mr G. B. Harty said it would be disastrous for small farmers with big mortgages to have their valuations forced down. The council itself wanted the scheme changed by rezoning rural A land round Cashmere Road between Worsleys Road and Hoon Hay Valley Road to rural R, permitting houses to be built on five-acre sections. The change was supported by the owners of 35 properties. x The change would affect about 440 acres, said a townplanning consultant. Miss N. Northcroft. The change was desirable to allow those who wanted more spacious surroundings to build on the lower slopes of the hills, and as a transition to suburban development. No decisions were announced.

Stockpile Cost.—The annual cost to the country, both direct and indirect, of the wool stockpile was somewhere between s2m and s3m, the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Taiboys) said in Wellington today.—(P.A.)