District scheme changes slated

Press, 28 March 1980, Page 11

District scheme changes slated

Proposed changes to the Waimairi District Scheme were “unnecessarily restrictive” on agriculture and horticultural land uses, Mr M. R. Murchison said at a meeting of the North Canterbury Federated Farmers executive. Mr Murhison, an executive member, said that nobody could estimate the; minimum size for economic land use, or foresee the future and dictate what would be the best use for land.

“We are over-regulated and lethargic about it,” he said. Planners did not have the right to stop somebody building on land they were using economically, irrespective of the area concerned. There was an increasing need for the use of common sense and more liberal planning, Mr Murchison said.

The only people to reap a return from special* departure applications were the legal profession and advisers, in what} were extremely costly, slow, and unwieldy; exer* If the planners devised the rules they should also pay all the costs of an ap-

peal, or produce commonsense plans that were workable and did not infringe on human rights, he said.

Mr IL W, Storey, Domi* nion vice-president of Federated Farmers said that ultimately the mar* ketplace would decide the future land use.- Undue regulations created more; problems than they solved, and affected the bona fide farmer more than the people they were meant to dissuade, he said. The problem was that urban dwellers had a greater share of the wealth of the community than they deserved, and competed unfairly with agriculture for land.

Planning and restrictions were needed to contain urban sprawl, but itj was also necessary to protect land for agricultural and horticultural purposes, he said.

The provincial president (Mr G. E, Rennie) said that town planners were legion but rural planners were a rare breed. Mq Murchison’s' comments would be included in the branch’s submission on the district scheme, he said.