Planners oppose two business-use plans

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 10

Planners oppose two business-use plans

Two plans to start or intensify business uses in residential zones were considered by a Christchurch City Council hearing panel this' week.

Both applications were opposed by council planners. The ’ Canterbury United Council also objected to the proposal to use part of an existing house at 913 Colombo Street for a fashion garment showroom and office.

The property is part of a piece of residential land between Bealey Avenue - and the Salvation Army’s Resthaven Eventide Home.

Mr M. J. G. Garland, a senior town planner, said the block was already split into "three residential enclaves" by land designated for North Canterbury Hospital Board purposes. He said the situation was “typical of the city’s inner residential areas.”

The isolated pockets of residential, land were “particularly vulnerable to industrial and commercial expansion," according to a passage from the reviewed district scheme.

Commercial zoning round the Colombo Street-Bealey Avenue intersection had been “drastically reduced" in the 1972 scheme, said Mr Garland.

Mr N. J. Williams, a conn-

cil senior engineering assistant. said the application could not be supported on transportation planning grounds.

The extension of any commercial use into the Residential 5 zone along Colombo Street would, affect the traffic capacity of streets near the city centre. Since recent changes had reduced the scale of the planned central road network, existing streets would have to cope with more traffic.

It was “more important than ever” to restrict the extension of commercial uses into residential zones .along busy -streets near the ' city centre, said Mr Williams.

The applicants- said that business would be limited to the retail trade, and a selfcontained flat on the second storey of the weatherboard house would be retained. A new office and showroom block is being built in a commercial zone just north of the application site. Home occupation An application to expand a home occupation — the manufacture of bicycle touring and safety equipment — at 35 Nayland Street, Sumner, was opposed by a council planner.

Mr T. D. Kerr, who lives in the house, wants to employ up to three oersons as full-

time or part-time workers.

A district scheme home occupation clause that allows such uses in residential zones requires all persons who work there to live permanently on the site.

Fisher Buildings, Ltd, of 20 Nayland Street, objected to Mr Kerr’s application.

Mr W. J.' R. Preston, an assistant town planner, said that home occupation standards in the district scheme had been written “to ensure that such non-residential uses are kept at a scale and intensity appropriate to the neighbourhood."

Home occupations could be a stepping-stone to more extensive activity, he said.

"Once the activity reaches a certain level of intensity where nearby neighbours can be affected, ‘the dweller should think of relocating his activity to a more appropriately zoned part of the city," he said.

The Nayland Street property is next'to the Sumner Community Hall. Mr Kerr said it was used originally by a cartage contractor wnc 1 kept his horses and plant on the property. Most of his production was sent to retailers, but he would also sell products direct to the public.