Foreshore area may soon be subject of detailed plan

Press, 22 May 1978, Page 1

Foreshore area may soon be subject of detailed plan

A Christchurch foreshore plan, similar to that completed this year for the Estuary, may he prepared soon.

The Christchurch City Council’s principal planner (Mr W. T. Williams) told a New Brighton seminar at the week-end that such a plan-»-of future development or conservation along the city’s beaches—-could not be done without public opinion and expert advice.

But unless conservation work was done soon on the delicate sand dunes, there would not be much left to save or develop, the Pier and Foreshore Society meeting was warned by a seminar member. Mr Williams said there would obviously be one faction wishing to leave the beachfront as it is, and another “plugging” for Napier-style development that would attract more business and tourists. There was a place for both viewpoints. A University of Canterbury geographer, Dr R. M. Kirk, said the basic need was to preserve the fore-

dune. What happened to vacant land behind that was not so important to coastal stability. The beach erosion experience of homes at Southshore, near the end of Rocking Horse Road, showed that it would be unwise to allow further development in the foredune system. Heavy seas in 1964 and last year had eaten away much of the dune and exposed protection works.

The Pier and Foreshore Society’s chairman (Mr P. D. Dunbar) said that New Brighton interests were “now on the threshold of a more united move forward on development of the beachfront,” but things

had to be done according to a proper plan. His members would “act as a catalyst to wider action, to protect and promote the foreshore, but gently.” Mr Williams said he saw the foreshore plan as “a massive design exercise, but it is a new area that needs a lot of research, and some public direction.”

One project that came immediately to mind was the possibility of building controlled access boardwalks through the dunes, to avoid the present problems caused when walking tracks leading from side streets were scoured by wind and resulted in “blowouts” of sand where the plant cover was worn away. “These are questions people should be asking,” Mr Williams said—“how

much public foot access there should be to the beach; how to keep motor vehicles off the sand, and how much landscaping should there be? Or should things be left alone?”

Dr P. J. A. McCombs, of the Ministry of Transport Marine Division, said there had been no specific council policy for the beach, although the city boundary had extended 200 yards into the sea. In time, that boundary would be moved back to the mean high-water mark, to make it standard with other New Zealand boundaries.

He said there was a “pretty fair chance” that the council would be appointed as a Maritime Planning Authority, which would include representatives of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, Christchurch Drainage Board. Regional Planning Authority, Government departments, and private citizens.

A typical issue for such an authority could be whether car-parks could, or should, be built at the Marine Parade edge of the sand dunes. If the old New Brighton pier were proposed again today, it would be a complicated decision for the authority, he said.

Dr Kirk said the city’s beachfront was now an “equilibrium system” that did not seem to be changing as much as in past centuries for some reason. But there were always fluctuations with pronounced peaks within the equilibrium. The storm surges, coinciding with high spring tides, in 1964 and 1977 were two examples. They might indicate a trend of 10-year to 15-year storms that would damage improperly placed facilities. - Foredunes were made to be washed away, he said;

there should be no interference with them. "The foreshore is the shock absorber of the whole system," Dr Kirk said, “but one aim of property developers has been to get rid of them.” Some developments had been in the way of natural erosion processes, and had been the first to go when high seas came.

After erosion had cut deeply into some seaside sections In the North Island, one property developer had advertised sections further back from the sea with the slogan: “The more erosion, the closer you are to the beach.”

The City Council’s landscape architect (Mr W. J. Scadden) said there would always be growing problems for some plants on the sand dunes. They had to put up with windblown sand and salt, high evaporation, vandalism, and low-fertility soil. Wind was the greatest single problem, and the hardest to control. Pines would grow, for instance, but would be stunted and shorn off at the tops because of the salt wind. But the dune vegetation was not substantial enough yet, Mr Scadden said.