Vehicle firm to expand site

Press, 27 November 1979, Page 6

Vehicle firm to expand site

The expansion of the Hutchinson Motors site in Colombo Street, Sydenham, has been allowed by the No. 3 Planning Tribunal. Earlier, the Christchurch City Council had granted a specified departure for commercial expansion into a Residential 4 zone between Walton Street and Huxley Street. The decision had been appealed against by the Canterbury Regional Planning Authority and a resident. The supporters of the expansion move said houses that would be removed were already run down. The critics of the application said they had been allowed to deteriorate by the applicant company, and their sites should be protected for high density urban renewal. The Planning Tribunal said

that land already zoned commercial, facing Colombo Street, was partly undeveloped. Development to its ' full potential, which could be done without permission, could adversely affect adjacent housing even without ■ expansion. Expansion into the resiidential zone should be conitrolled under specified departure procedures to I strengthen the new buffer [between future housing redevelopment and commercial activities, the tribunal said. Arguments that approval would undermine district scheme policies behind the residential zone were not accepted. The motor company will build a motor-vehicle workshop on the bigger site, have a larger vehicle display area, provide more off-street parking and convert a house for staff use.