City move on land sought

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 10

City move on land sought

Broadlands Properties, Ltd, wants the Christchurch City Council either to lift its reserves designation on 66ha of land that the company wants to develop for housing or buy the land itself. Broadlands has been prevented from developing the land —by the Heathcote River adjoining the Ferry* mead Trust—because of the council’s designation. Before ihe Town and Country Planning Appeal Board, counsel for the Council (Mr D. Palmer) said that a correct value could not be placed on the land, either in terms of sale or of compensation for the loss of the right to build, until Broadlands had filed a conditional-use application. The area had an underlying residential zoning which would not be inconsistent with the development Broadlands planned. Mr R. J. De Goldi, for Broadlands, said that a conditional-use application would be “an exercise in futility.” It was irrelevant to

the compensation and value issue and only confused it. Proposals had been put to the council nine months ago. A fresh set of plans in a conditional-use application would be expensive and time consuming.

“The council should acquire the land or take the designation off,” said Mr De Goldi. In an interim decision on an earlier appeal hearing, the board had ruled that Broadlands. with the Christchurch Drainage Board, could begin stop-banking the site and reclaiming it but the district scheme prevented the use of the land for the purposes intended by the appellant, Mr De Goldi asked for a compulsory purchase order to be served on the council. The board has the power to order the acquisition of land if a district scheme “prevents the future use of the land for every purpose for which the owner or occupier, but for the scheme, could lawfully have used it.” The board reserved its decision.