Marist appeal allowed

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33532, 13 May 1974, Page 1

Marist appeal allowed

The No. 2 Town and Country Appeal Board has allowed an appeal to permit the Marist Rugby Club to develop land it has in Grimsey’s Road with a hall, a car park, and later tennis courts and bowling greens.

The club had appealed against the Waimairi County Council’s refusal to give the club a specified departure to its town plan to go ahead with the projected i development. The appeal board, in a ; reserved decision, held “that the proposal is a community ! amenity necessary in this zone and as such will blend in with the forseeable future amenities of the neighbourhood. “It will be a convenience to the inhabitants of the district and will assist their general welfare. The board is not satisfied that any marginal effects on the health or safety of the isolated pocket of houses in the area would be sufficient to outweigh the advantages accruing to the community in general.”

The club’s development is in two stages. The first stage provides for a hall, dressing rooms for men and women, a kitchen, two squash courts, and storage space. The hall could be hired for social and sports functions. Objectors to the scheme cited noise from the premises, traffic noise, and danger to children from increased traffic, made worse by the lack of footpaths, as their three main concerns.

The appeal board set a number of conditions to their approval, including planting and landscaping to the county engineer’s satisfaction, noise insulation, and the requirement that no signs be erected on the property without the approval of the council.