THE PRESS MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1978. The Merivale mall dispute

Press, 7 August 1978, Page 16

THE PRESS MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 1978. The Merivale mall dispute

The rumpus over the building of a new shopping mall in the Merivale shopping district has raised an important general question: do present town-planning procedures allow enough community participation in the planning of large new private buildings which affect many individual citizens and may change the character of a neighbourhood? The developers of the proposed mall have been entirely within their legal rights in making plans which conform to the provisions of the district planning scheme. They are under no obligation to refer their plans to the public or the Christchurch City Council. But so far as they are known, their plans are unacceptable to some local residents and it may fairly be asked whether the planning of the mall might not have gone more smoothly had the developers been required to observe “amenity” by-laws which would lay down standards for the design, arrangement, size, and shape of new buildings. A further proposition is that the plans be open to public scrutiny early in their devising. If such by-laws were to be considered seriously, thev would have to be very carefully worded: otherwise they would merely encourage petty and even competitive meddling At worst, this would paralvse developments, many of which are a resnonse tn public demand and a distinct improvement on present buildings. Something more mav be needed, however, than a few' vaguely worded clauses in the district planning scheme to which the council could appeal if a private developer proposed to erect a building which would be an intolerable blot on the appearance of a neighbourhood. The danger that acceptable and even necessary developments would be thwarted is evident in the strong hints from some who are objecting to the proposed mall at Merivale Some, it seems, are objecting not to the appearance or design of the proposed building but to any further development in Merivale at all The pronosed mall in Merivale would probably satisfy the demands and habits of a great majority of shoppers in the district and from further afield. It might even stimulate a general improvement in the standard of buildings in the shopping centre.

Merivale is endowed with some excellent businesses and an attractive variety of shopping services. The truth is, however, that the so-called “village” is a scruffy mixture of old and new r . The “village” has long since been ruined, and if some of the run-down buildings have any charm or appeal it is from familiarity rather than clear-sighted observation of what is there. A mall, and other recent developments, including the rehabilitation of old houses for shops, could be the beginning of the “village” putting itself together again. This is a prospect that is all the more likely because the architect of the mall has apparently gone to some trouble to use appropriate building materials and because the developers will use the services of professional landscapers. Those who are objecting to the proposed mall may have a just complaint in that the development of Merivale has been haphazard and ill-co-ordinated and that, although it may have conformed to the letter of the district planning scheme, it has not conformed to the scheme’s spirit. The scheme envisaged the Merivale shopping centre as an intermediate commercial zone: it has already become, even without the building of the new mall, a district centre both in the amount of retail floor space and in the variety of goods and services that can be purchased there. It is simply too late to turn the clock back. A more forward-looking attitude would be to accept that the area is performing a role as a large, varied district shopping centre, and to ensure both that the best of the area’s older buildings are preserved and that the new buildings are the best that architects can produce. The obstructive and hostile attitudes of many of those who are objecting to the building of the new mall are likely to inhibit the improvement of an area which, in spite of talk of its being a “village,” is at present an ill-planned and rough-and-ready assortment of buildings The important task in Merivale is to ensure that a new opportunity is used to the best advantage of the neighbourhood, not to obstruct a development that at least promises as many benefits as disadvantages already.