Car Firm Given Permit For Sydenham Branch

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32166, 9 December 1969, Page 9

Car Firm Given Permit For Sydenham Branch

An application by Hutchinson Motors, Ltd, for permission to use a block of one acre, between Walton and Huxley Streets, on Colombo Street, as a service station and garage for the sale of new and used vehicles, beard before the Town and Country Planning Appeal Board yesterday, was opposed by the City Council.

The applicant company, holder of a Ford vehicle franchise, sought permission to build a showroom and new office on the site. The site, part of which is covered by the Ace Service Station, and car sales yard is zoned commercial under the present City Council’s existing district scheme, but is to be zoned residential in the council’s review scheme. The board decided to grant the application, subject to the showroom not exceeding 2000 square feet, and the car sales yard to be extended along the Colombo Street frontage. The entrances and exits are to be subject to the control of the City Engineer, and advertising to be controlled, fencing and landscaping to be approved by the City Engineer.

The board comprises Messrs J. W. Kealy, S.M. (chairman), A. E. Kennard, G. R. Tutt and W. F. McArthur. Mr J. R. Woodward, said the applicant company wanted to decentralise. It had established branches at Sockburn and Papanui and now wanted one in Christchurch south. Two old houses would be demolished and the land used for off-street parking. The houses were zoned residential. The site was in five titles and the applicant held options over all titles. The existing service station, a comparatively new building, would he retained by the applicant company. Pressure Of Vehicles

Ormond Alexander Hutchinson, general manager of the applicant company, said that vehicle registrations in greater Christchurch had doubled from 60,000 in 1958 to 120,000 last year. The pressure of vehicles had limited business in the company’s central premises in Tuam Street.

The company would take over the existing petrol station on the Sydenham site and would not have to seek more petrol licences. New as well as used cars would be sold from the site which would be landscaped and developed possibly in different levels. Cross-examined by Mr A. Hearn, for the City Council, the witness said research had shown customers for his firm’s cars required a garage in Christchurch south. The site was not in good shape and would be greatly improved. To Mr J. N. Matson, for the Regional Planning Authority, the witness said the Sockburn premises would be five miles from the central premises, and the Papanui branch four miles and a half from it. The proposed new branch would be a mile from it To the board, the witness said the company would be

doing spray-painting or panelbeating at the Sydenham site. Women drivers, in particular, found the Tuam Street site too congested by traffic and were not interested in going there. He did not think the Sydenham site would become congested. Miss Nancy Northcroft, a town planning consultant, said that the automotive industry was establishing itself as a fringe use in large sub- > urban shopping centres. This ! was particularly noticeable in 1 Auckland and was now hap- ' pening in Christchurch. ■ “I can appreciate the City Council’s desire to stop ribbon development, but this is a commercial area and adjacent to a big shopping area, and the selling and servicing of cars is a recognised use on the fringes of large shopping centres,” Miss Northcroft said. She said there was no question of the proposed use detracting from the amenities of the area because it was already commercial in predominant use. The long front? ages on Colombo and Huxley Streets meant that no difficulty should be experienced with access. Facing A Problem To Mr Hearn, Miss Northcroft agreed that the City Council planners faced a problem in trying to consolidate development in Colombo Street into three shopping areas, but said that a garage was properly a fringe use of the large shopping centre of Sydenham. It- was not a proper use in the smaller centre of Tennyson Street. To further questions, Miss Northcroft said that a number of the used car yards in Colombo Street, and service stations were built on residential sections and were too small and not satisfactory. One or two big service stations properly sited might eliminate the more unsatisfactory ones, and that would be a good thing. Miss Northcroft said that the narrow strip of commercial development on either side of Colombo Street, plus the new reading development and expansion in the future, meant that the area in question would not be developed into an attractive residential one. For the City Council, Mr Hearn said that there were 30 objections to be heard to the council review scheme in the Colombo Street south area, all relating to adjustment of commercial zone boundaries. If the present application was granted by the board then it could affect the objections to be heard. Therefore, he submitted, it was wrong in principle for the board to grant it The applicant had nd urgency in the matter.

Mr Kealy said that the petrol station had existing use rights, whatever the final zoning. If the board granted the applicant permission to put up a showroom and office it would not affect the existing use right The applicant had options over the land and could not wait until the options ran out

- Mr Hearn said the council, . while the applicant was ob- - jecting to the area being t zoned residential, must op- : pose non-confirming uses, i under residential, at present : being sought by the applicant 1 Serious Example William Thomas Williams, 1 a City Council town planner, ’ said the council opposed the ! application because Colombo Street represented one of the ' most serious examples in ' Christchurch of ribbon com--1 mercial development stradd- ’ ling a primary traffic street. “A continuous or sporadic mixture of commercial and ' service industrial uses ' stretches from Moorhouse Avenue to Tennyson Street—a mile and a quarter—the only break in continuity being to the immediate north of the Tennyson Street shopping centre,” Mr Williams said. He said the extended ribbon and dispersed commercial development was inconvenient for the public: there was a danger to pedestrians, traffic efficiency was reduced and it was not possible to provide off-street parking for large groups of uses. The ribbon development was wasteful of land and made an untidy and unattractive street front. “Ribbon or dispersed commercial development adjoins a larger stretch of residential land than does a more compact form of development A frequent result is the undermining of the stability of adjoining residential areas. In the case of Sydenham, renewal of the residential areas is a matter of urgency,” Mr Williams said. The review scheme was for

the separate development of three main retail nodes in the area—the main Sydenham shopping centre, the commercial area south of the property sought by the applicant and the Tennyson Street centre. Mr Williams said, there were eight second-hand car dealers on the Colombo Street frontage between Moorhouse Avenue and Tennyson Street so it could not be argued there was a need for the extension of car retail facilities in the area. Called *by Mr Matson, Frank Stanley Robinson, Christchurch regional planning officer, said the proposed extension would have a detrimental effect on the traffic efficiency of Colombo, Huxley and Milton Streets. “The consolidation of commercial uses on this site immediately adjacent to one of 25 most important suburban intersections in the region is not in the public interest It would prejudice its redevelopment for residential purposes,” Mr Robinson said. Mr Kealy said he had given serious thought to Mr Hearn’s

submissions about future zoning. He had decided to consider the present application solely as one in regird to existing use and divorced entirely from future zoning. In the circumstances strict limitations must be enforced if the board should grant the application.