Rural subdivisions?

Press, 9 December 1981, Page 6

Rural subdivisions?

The allowing of specified planning departures to subdivide rural land into market gardens could set a bad precedent, a Waimairi County . Council planning hearing was told yesterday. A council sub-committee was considering two departure applications, from L. W. Moore and G. R. and H. R. Hughey, to subdivide their properties in the county rural zone. The assistant county planner, Mr H..R. Versteegh, recommended that both applications be declined unless exceptional circumstances were proved. '. Approving a specified departure would set a precedent for other rural landowners to apply for departures and demand approval on the basis that the council had allowed applications to proceed without good reason.

Instead, the council could consider approving a subdivision as a conditional use which could be reassessed when it lapsed after two years, he said. Mr Moore, a retired dairy farmer, wanted to subdivide his uneconomic 12.68 ha farm on Philpotts Road into two market garden lots of about 6ha each. His son would develop one lot and Mr. Moore would retain the second for later development. Cr I. Calvert asked Mr Moore to consider undertaking to bring a set area under cultivation each year. “What is to stop the applicant running horses on the land and planting a few carrots,” he said. The sub-committee asked Mr Moore to provide a management plan outlining his development plans in time

for its. recommendation to the council meeting on Monday. The Hugheys applied for departure approval to subdivide their 12.18 ha Marshland Road property into three lots, retaining the front lot for their own market garden and selling the others. Mr G. R. Hughey said that ill-health prevented him from working on more than a 4ha area and the soil:was good enough to support three market gardens. His hearing was adjourned. The sub-committee also asked Mr Hughey to present a management report outlining the economics of three gardens on his property. . The Canterbury United Council objected to both applications. Eight hectares is the minimum allotment size for subdivision in the rural county zone.