City Plan unveiled after seven years work

Press, 4 December 1979, Page 6

City Plan unveiled after seven years work

Wraps were taken off an inovative City Plan yesterfay. the latest version — Iter seven years of research - of the Christchurch City Council’s district scheme. The plan has full effect low that it has been notified, the process of obections and appeals could eke many months Performance standards, amiliar in industrv, are inroduced to a district scheme or the first time. It is perlaps the first such experinent in the world, and cerainiy the first in New Zeaand. planners said. The City Planner (Mr W. F Williams) said the new r heme should be more stable ind more secure after its lecond review. Objectives sere clearer; there was a uder provision, and a more ogical one. for land uses in ill parts of the city. If the system worked, it tould be more difficult for Jevelopers to substantiate rises for specified departures that could lead residents to loubt the strength of zoning aws. "When there is instability, there tends to be specu-

■lation," Mr Williams said.! Planning's main objective was security of land use and ownership. “Now it will be very difficult to justify breaching provisions of the scheme,” he said, "because we think we have made provision for all the needs.” Objections to the reviewed scheme will close on March 31, allowing a month longer than usual. The deadline for cross-objections will be in another two months. New district scheme objectives were more specific, 'as well as being clearer. “We say why things have to be done,” Mr Williams said. There had been no significant expansion of residential zoning, though there had been some trade-offs. Expansion of residential zoning, though there had been some trace-offs. Expansion of commercial zones in the suburbs h d been limited largely to developments already committed. But options were kept open for an upswing in industrial activity, planners said. The reduction of motorway land designations, fore-

seen over the last couple of j vears as planners realised transport proposals first made in the 1960 s were too large, had been done in the new; plan. For instance, the controversial St Albans northern] arterial requires about half as wide a corridor in the reviewed scheme. The southern motorway designation through Sydenham is gone, and the central motorway designation between Bealey Avenue and Moorhouse Avenue is gone. I The Traffic Engineer (Mr M. L. Gadd) said there had been “quite a trimming back of transport networks” to I cope with the moderate traffic growth predicted. I Residential bonus allowances would allow smaller | sections in some areas, but I only where subdivision de- | signers were prepared to :make the extra effort of comImitting themselves to specific designs early in the planning stages. Planners said the flexible approach could be a way to avoid the visual monotony of some neighbourhoods, where all houses were set back the same distance from the

street, had backyards the same size, and seemed little different from their neighbours. A neighbourhood approach I to zoning problems and prospects will also be made. In j the new plan, one well- ; known neighbourhood — the ; Avon Loop near the city centre — has been given a special residential zone to help preserve its character. I In the Loop, high-rise I apartment buildings have ! been excluded, along with new activities such as assembly buildings and hotels i normally permitted in other i zones.

Mr Williams said the use of specific zones may be a new trend if neighbourhoods come together with the counjcil to design their futures. “I believe we’re going away from the trend for regulations to become more complex,” Mr Williams said of the new plan. “I hope it will cost the private and public sector less than the present scheme. “You will find that other local body schemes are bigger and more complex. We hope this one is simpler.”

The present scheme went part of the way, by making so many land uses predominant in particular zones instead of having long lists of conditional uses that required planning approval. At the back of the plan are small maps of about 100 streets that need widening, even though that widening may not happen for a long time.

That is down from a list of about 370 under-width streets in the city. Some residents prefer the narrower streets, and will fight to keep them. Others may want theirs widened some day. It will be up to neighbourhoods to get I together on what they want.