Dept. ‘should buy school site, or give it up’

Press, 22 August 1979, Page 24

Dept. ‘should buy school site, or give it up’

The Education Department i Should either buy land on ' the Worsley Spur immediately, or it should lift the designation reserving the I land for a primary school, it ; was submitted to the No. 2 I Planning Tribunal yesterday. If the department chose 1 not to buy the land, and 1 also refused to lift its desig- 1 nation, the future of the whole development of the ' Westmorland subdivision could be put in jeopardy, ’ Wayne James Francis, a 1 joint owner of the devel- 1 opment, told the Tribunal. p He was giving evidence inj a resumed hearing, in which the Tribunal was being I' asked to order the depart- ' ment either to buy the land or uplift its designation. The chairman of then Tribunal is Mr W. J. M Treadwell, S.M. The other), members are Messrs H. L. . Riley, J. F. McKenzie, and!) E. W. Clement.

Mr S. R. Mating, who appeared for Mr Francis and his brother, Mr B. G. Francis, called three wit-) nesses yesterday. Gavin Ogilvie, a Christchurch consulting engineer, said his firm had prepared a detailed structure plan for the development of the Worsley Spur subdivision. A site for a primary school had ■ been decided in February, 1976, after discussions with the Canterbury Education Board. By early 1978 the board! had advised Mr Ogilvie that I the land-purchase section of! the Ministry of Works and! Development was ready toi start purchase procedures.' But, the witness said, he! later discovered that nothing’ had been done to buy the land. A subsequent application bv the developers for a con-ditional-use of the land for the proposed school, to allow subdivision, was declined after an object-

ion by the Ministry of Works and Development. A second application was also declined by the Paparua County Council, after an assurance from the Ministry that a site for the school would soon be decided, Mr Ogilvie said. Further development of the subdivision could then proceed if the department’s requirements had been definitely met. Since that decision in February of this year, no date for tiie purchase of the necI essary land had been fixed Iby the department, he said. The future of the land, ’which could be easily sold ias desirable residential sections, should be decided i promptly to allow the developer to get on with the next • stage of the subdivision, Mr I Ogilvie said. , He agreed with Mr TreadIwell that if the land was not ’sold to the Education Department, or the designation i lifted to allow subdivision to

| go ahead, the over-all development of the Westmorland ’subdivision would be forced ! to stop. It would cost the developer about $64,000 to service the area under dispute, and the value when developed would be about $400,000, Mr Ogilvie said. In evidence, Mr W. J. Francis said that if the ■designation was lifted the i sections ..could be sold | quickly, in spite of the drop in land sales oi the past two i years. The first 20 sections ’were sold in one day when ! they became available in 1976. i Recent interest in land ’ sales had convinced him that • the market would soon be- ’ come “viable” again. As more sections would soon be needed it was imperative that the future of the land set aside for the school be ’decided, Mr Francis said. ’The development of the next • stage of the subdivision was being held up because of the

uncertainty over the land. “If the designation is removed, we will be able to develop desirable sections which will make economic and realistic the balance of the development of the present stage, and enable us to plan with certainty,” he said. Graeme Norman John Davey, a Christchurch accountant, said in evidence that more progress on the area’s development was essential if the appellants were to recover their investment. About SI.SM had been raised at March this year for the development, and it was vital that “steps be taken to ensure the development continues.” The Ministry and the department resisted an order to buy the school site immediately because it wets regarded as a community facility to serve a community which had not yet come into being, Mr J. R. Smart submitted for the Ministry. The land market showed little demand for sections, and the sale of sections to date suggested a school would not be required for many years, he said. If -the Tribunal decided the school designation interfered with tiie developer’s proposals for the rest of the subdivision, any order to lift the designation or buy tiie site immediately should be deferred until the development had proceeded, Mr Smart said.

Rosemary Biss, a Ministry of Works planning officer, said that it would be unwise not to earmark a suitable site for a primary school on the area to serve the subdivision's future needs. But the sale of sections showed that the time when the school would be needed was many years away. At least 133 households would be needed on Worsley

Spur to support a school, and since 1976 only seven houses had been built, she said.

She did not agree with Mr Maling that the developers owned land that would suddenly be sought after as desirable residential sections, given the present economic climate and the very few land transfers so far. But it would be “a reasonable assumption” that a return to a favourable economic climate would produce as much interest as had been apparent when the first 20 sections were sold in 1976, Miss Biss said. Alan Francis Thomson, the buildings officer of the southern regional office of the Department of Education, said that the development of up to 700 lots on Worsley Spur would require a primary school to serve the area. But to justify buying the site, the department had to be certain that within a reasonable period a school would be needed. It was Government policy to buy such school sites up to 10 years in advance, but the present rate of housing growth meant the department could not be sure that a school would be needed then.

"At this stage the number of homes built and the building permits issued do not make the purchase of the school site a matter of urgency,” Mr Thomson said, but the future of. the site would be assessed reguarly. Mr Thomson agreed with Mr Maling that, it would be “irresponsible” not to lift the designation if the school was hot needed, and that it was unfair on the developer that potentially valuable land be put in “cold storage.” The hearing was ■' adjourned until 9.30 a.m. today.