Council rebuffed in car-park dispute

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 6

Council rebuffed in car-park dispute

' A- town-planning dispute about specific landscaping for "a small city-centre carpark'has been lost by the Christchurch City Council. In a decision that rejected some council conditions tied to.approval of the car-park, the'Planning Tribunal chided both parties for their inability to settle the dispute without an appeal hearing. Ateliers Christchurch, Ltd, was the other party to the dispute. The 20-space car-park, at the corner of Manchester Street and Kilmore Street,

was formed illegally at first, without planning permission. • It/continued that way for •'.some time before the origi- : .naltown-planning hearing : Dn a specified’departure ap-

plication from Ateliers, the property owner. The car-park had replaced an old house in the Residential 6 zone. No public objection to the application was received.

City councillors did not object to the land use continuing, but said that there should be landscaping and other development conditions in an area where urban renewal was being encouraged. ' . A council traffic engineer said that niether of the carpark’s entrance and exit points complied with a city ordinance,, and strict adherence to /’the district scheme would not permit the carpark to exist. One council condition said that;<ordy>;one-accgs&.point would be allowed, fronvKil-

more Street. The Planning Tribunal said that both access points ■ were acceptable.

The council also said that there should be a landscaped strip, Im wide, along both street frontages, with, plants grown to a minimum height of 1.5 m. However, the tribunal said that only those using the streets would benefit from that strip planting, and it was not needed. Maintenance of existing and proposed car-park trees, and the areas round them, could be done by the proper-ty-owner without specific instructions from the .council, the tribunal said. Its decision said that a recent photograph. of the carpark .did/not :< ,seem ■■ Jo - show ahytiiing'iirisightly.