Rise in land prices attacked

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 10

Rise in land prices attacked

A local government corporation should be' formed to develop all main new urban areas around Christchurch, said a Christchurch consulting engineer at a meeting of the Environmental Vaguard Organisation. J Mr L. Steven, a consultant 1 to the Christchurch Drainage Board, said that such a cor-! 1 poration might prevent what 1 had occurred over the last five years or so in the “grey”areas beyond the city’s urban! fence. :i Virtually all the available- 1 urban land was owned bv a. handful of develooment companies which rationed it out l to the Public to their own economic advantage, he said. In a private enterprise society this might be fair! enough. Mr Steven said, but he questioned whether it was fair to create a situation where section nrices increased from $2500 to $B5OO in two years, and where the price of undeveloped land could, rise from $6OOO to $25,000 an acre over the same period. RAPID INCREASE i This rapid increase in land 1 values was a national trend, i said Mr Steven, but there! must be an explanation fori sections in Christchurch now! : costing more than in any of the other centres. They had mcreased in price 262 per' cent between December, 1968. 1 and December, 1973. Of the proposed satellite citv at Rolleston. Mr Steven j said there were two main aspects—the Minister of Works (Mr Watt) had made the decision because local authorities in the area either, , could not or would not do

so; and the Minister had chosen a site which had not a single redeeming feature. i “Nevertheless, if his de-, cision was based on a belief [that the development of a satellite city adjacent to; Christchurch should be a function of the State. I believe he was partly correct,” said Mr Steven. “If land use is to be controlled in the way we now envisage, I believe develop- ; ment can only be done by a ; State or local-body corpora- > ation. assisted by State finance. in a way whereby profits which accrue through zoning charges are returned I, |to the community at large! and not entirely to the land- 1 1 owner.” Such a corporation must ; have ready access to loan fin- < ance.

Mr Steven said that town planning legislation must recognise both betterment and compensation. The large profits which accrued to the landowner from the stroke of a pen when someone deleted the word “rural” and substituted “urban” must be returned in great measure to 1 the community. Some significant portion of this money must be used as compensation in the inner areas if these were to be redeveloped to provide a better environment. Mr Steven also advocated urgent restructuring of local, 'government in Christchurch. “I would give first priority! ;to creating a regional auth- 1 ority—call it what you will—, to deal with all those aspects of regional and even district! planning, and the provision

of all works and services such as sewerage, drainage, highways, water and solid waste disposal.” Mr B. Millar, director of the Canterbury Regional Planning Authority, said that from a planning point of view Christchurch had not succeeded where other urban growth centres had failed, vet in comparison with other centres it came out very well. Christchurch. and the whole of Canterbury, had manv difficulties to overcome and suffered from the universal sectional pressures and resorts to compromise. But compared with other cities and growth regions of the world it had the greatest opportunity to prevent further urban complex overgrowth—even to undo much of what had occurred.