Constricted planning of urban growth

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 14

Constricted planning of urban growth

Nearly three years ago the Christchurch Drainage Board sought the assistance of the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority to determine how the development of the city would affect the long-term planning of the board’s works. A year ago the board was still wanting information about the direction that the city’s growth might take. The authority’s director of planning told the board that much of the development that could be expected would be outside the board’s area and outside the authority’s planning area. Apart from the virtual impossibility of planning urban development on a large scale more than two decades ahead, the present limits to the jurisdiction of the authority appear to be the main hindrance to providing the board with the Information it still seeks. The Drainage Board’s problem is but one facet of the difficulties arising from the constricted sphere of influence of the planning authority. The Local Government Commission has recommended that the whole North Canterbury local government area come under one planning authority; and in the interests of coherent, long-term planning this makes good sense. The trouble now is that it may be years before the reform of the structure of local government and the extension of the planning authority’s jurisdiction can produce useful information on how to plan for longterm urban growth. The Minister of Works (Mr Allen) has told the board and the authority that he supports the idea of an extension of the planning area in line with the commission’s proposal. He has no suggestions for dealing with the lack of guidance in the meantime. The authority is now discussing the problems informally with councils outside its area and is treating the need for an extension separately from the amalgamation proposals. If this approach will hasten a remedy to the present dilemma of the authority—even a temporary remedy lasting until the commission’s proposals have been threshed out—it will be to the advantage of the whole North Canterbury community.