Appeal against refusal to allow motels

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32522, 4 February 1971, Page 12

Appeal against refusal to allow motels

A proposal to build motel units at 5 Clyde Road would mean that the residential property of John Keith Sanders and Betty Sanders, near the intersection of Riccarton Road and Clyde Road, would be surrounded by commercial uses, the No. 1 Town and Country Planning Appeal Board was told yesterday by Mr R. J. de Goldi, counsel for Mr and Mrs Sanders. The board was hearing an appeal by William Ebenezer Wright against the Waimairi

County. Council’s refusal to permit the development. The chairman of the board (Mr A. R. Turner, S.M.) said, in effect, that Mr de Goldi’s statement was an over-simpli-fication. Motels were commercial enterprises on the part of their owners, but were residential as far as the users were concerned. Mr Wright said in evidence that for the last two years he had owned and managed Ham Motels, at 248-250 Riccarton Road. These comprised nine motel units and his own accommodation. In March, 1970, he had bought 5 Clyde Road, which adjoined his other property, and he wished to connect the two properties and build five more units. Mr Wright said that neither Mr and Mrs Sanders nor any other neighbour had spoken to him about any undesirable effect on their property. In his opinion, the occupants of these motels caused less trouble and made

less noise than the occupants of many flats, particularly those occupied by students, of which there were a number in the vicinity. The existing motel units certainly presented a better appearance than the many old houses in the neighbourhood occupied by tenants. It was proposed that the new units be in the same style as the existing units and the grounds landscaped. Robert Maxwell Parker,

town planning officer to the Waimairi County Council, said it was not desirable that there should be commercial development on all four comers of this busy intersection. The comer property was occupied by land agents but had been rezoned residential in 1967, and the council was not prepared to approve consolidation of the existing commercial use.

Mr Wright’s proposal, said Mr Parker, would mean that one house property, occupied by Mr and Mrs Sanders, would be enclosed by commercial uses of one sort or another. In Mr Parker’s opinion, this would represent a tendency to consolidate commercial development on the whole of the comer. On the appeal board with Mr Turner were Messrs A. E. Kennard, G. R. Tutt and R. S. Martin. The Waimairi County Council was represented by Mr J. E. Ryan, and the appellant by Mr J. H. M. Dawson. The board reserved its dei cision.