Neighbours object to domes

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 14

Neighbours object to domes

Allowing three domeshaped houses in a cluster at 5 Mays Road would damage the residential neighbourhood’s character, a Christchurch City Council planning hearing has been told. Apart from disliking the building design, objectors also complained about the number of units on one property. Under the council’s operative district scheme, only two units would be allowed, but the reviewed scheme, now going through the hearing stage, would allow three. Similar housing units have been built in Aratoro Place,

at McCormacks Bay, and on a back lot in Innes Road. The developer of the Mays Road units is Dome Construction, Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reese Bros, Ltd. The applicant company said that two flats, each with three bedrooms, could be built on two sites at 5 Mays Road if the property were subdivided, bringing the population density to 12, twice the density now planned. The domes had a low profile and regular shape, pleasing to the eye, compared with the “imposing dominance” that could have

resulted from a permitted two-storey development. One objector said he had seen that type of housing in Rome, and “they could keep it there.” The council’s senior town planner, Mr M. J. G. Garland, said that two objections to the district scheme review had sought conditional use procedures for three or more residential units on. a site. But three units were in accord with the council’s move towards mixing some medium-density housing with more predominant low-density detached housing. Opposition to dome struc 7

pearance could be expected, but it was not relevant in town-planning terms. An estate which owns the property at 7 Mays Road said there would be little room left on the applicant’s site for landscaping and gardening with three dome units. Such houses would probably attract younger owners and residents to a neighbourhood where they might disturb older residents of adjoining properties. Submissions on behalf of the estate of Robert Gordon Charters said the “peculiar dome shape” was totally out of character with the neighbourhood.