Limit city or pay the cost

Press, 12 July 1976, Page 1

Limit city or pay the cost

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STAN DARLING

A half-hearted or delayed approach to keep urban Christchurch from becoming too “bloated” will simply not work, according to the latest Canterbury Regional Planning Authority report on urban growth. The report, a preliminary outline of subjects to be included in the authority’s indicative plan later this year, gives warning of “colossal costs” if something is not done now to contain the spreading city and promote other regional “growth points” where people will want to live and work.

Housing developers, who are again pleading for

areas to be tacked on to existing Christchurch sprawl, are not' expected to be happy with the idea that traditional growth patterns have already gone too far.

Separation of new residential settlements from Christchurch by only two or three miles is not the answer, planners argue. “It may be impossible to prevent such development from eventually merging with the urban complex centred on Christchurch,” the report says. Instead, the report calls for “growth points” —

either new settlements or expanded towns — 20 miles or more from the present urban boundary’, with a green belt of at

least 15 miles between the large city and its selfcontained enghbours. None of this organised growth will be cheap, the report admits, but planners say it will be much cheaper than waiting until a bloated city is forced to redevelop inside itself at high cost. There is still plenty of room for growth within the present city, according to the report. ‘Within the boundary of Christchurch, there is a relatively low population density, and a tremendous potential for increased population and industry at acceptable densities,” the report says. To reverse the present situation, the report adds,

will require the planning and financial intervention of both the local authorities and the Government. “The continued outward growth of Christchurch militates against the expansion of existing towns and new growth points,” the report says. The disparity in social and economic opportunities in those areas will widen if nothing is done soon to select places where people can move without simply spilling over the urban edges. “Continued sprawl progressively removes the opportunity for future generations to choose between Christchurch remaining a relatively compact place, or extending over a greater area,” the report says.

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