Restricted land buying wanted

Press, 26 August 1978, Page 5

Restricted land buying wanted

Local bodies should be the only parties able to buy rural land for urban development, a scientist suggested to the erosion assessment and control conference in Christchurch.

Dr J. G; Hawley, a scientist with the Ministry of Works, said this would remedy present practices which did not take adequate account of urban slope instability or the need for aesthetic diversity.

Developers had an overriding responsibility to make a profit, and drew up scheme plans' with a maximum number of sections. Boundaries to their schemes were not in sympathy with topography, and this forced bad use of land and “the rule of law.”

Dr Hawley proposed that an owner of property zoned urban in the district scheme should sell only to the local body at “rural productive valuation plus says 3 per cent).” If the owner accepted the offer, a registered surveyor would draw up scheme plans, based on topography, and aesthetic,

town planning and geotechnical factors. For a major subdivision, two or more surveyors would compete to produce the winning scheme plan.

The land for sale would be valued by the administrative division of the Supreme Court after independent values — one appointed by the owner, one by the local body — had submitted independent valuations. The owner would not have to sell, Dr Hawley said.

Private enterprise would still be engaged. The only private party to suffer would be the developer. Local body staff work loads might be lighter because of greater reliance on professional opinion, and less on regulations. A local body could be successfully sued for negligence only if it had failed to engage competent professionals to advise and act on its behalf. Public acquisition of land for urban development was extensively practised overseas in Australia, Canada, the United •States, Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden, Dr Hawley said.