Restrictions urged on parking buildings

Press, 9 March 1984, Page 5

Restrictions urged on parking buildings

A Christchurch City Council attempt to create a ring of private car-parking buildings round the central business district should not hann the value of historic buildings or the Avon River frontage, objectors said yesterday.

A town-planning hearing panel was told by council officers that a lack of “several hundreds” of private car-parks in commercially zoned blocks was a drawback to the letting of commercial properties in the city centre.

The Assistant City Planner, Mr John Dryden, agreed with objectors that a parking building size limit — perhaps a restriction to four levels — would be appropriate in the Commercial 3 zone, south of Gloucester Street, between Montreal Street and Cambridge Terrace. The. proposed District Scheme variation heard yesterday would allow parking buildings as permitted uses in some blocks of the Com-

mercial 3 and 4 zones between Montreal, Peterborough, St Asaph, and Madras Streets.

Companies with interests in the Library Chambers, the former Canterbury Public Library building in Cambridge Terrace, said that there should be more stringent setback restrictions along the Avon River.

They said that no parking buildings should be erected within 40m of Cambridge Terrace. That would set any parking building back about as far as the Postal Centre’s eastern wall.

Mr Dryden suggested that a 20m setback might be more suitable along the Cambridge Terrace frontage, which includes the Canterbury Club and the chambers.

He agreed that part of the Commercial 3 zone was particularly sensitive because of the proximity of the river and a number bf historic buildings. The proposed variation

required new parking buildings to have a minimum height of two storeys to provide compact parking which did not reduce the potential of commercial floor space in the central city.

Mr Brian Hasell, a council traffic engineer, said that valuers and letting agents had commented on the difficulty of letting space in commercial buildings if staff and service car-parking was not available.

A shortfall of private parking spaces could be reduced over the years as buildings were redeveloped under schemes that had modern parking standards. Mr John Milligan, appearing for interests in the Library Chambers, said that the council had faced legal setbacks in recent years after trying to put controls on building design and appearance in its District Scheme provisions. However, the council should continue that approach, he said. “It would be appropriate to have a policy in place so that you can deal with individual cases when they arise," he said. “Parking buildings do not have to be ugly,” said Mr Dryden. “I think they can be appropriately designed.” Objectors’ concerns could be met by a positive use of the District Scheme’s design and appearance guidelines. Mr Milligan said that parking buildings were “inevitably rectangular blocks which offer little in the way of opportunities for sensitive or harmonious design.”

They could be “given some cosmetic attractiveness,” but “the best that can be done with them is that they begin to look like badly designed office buildings.” “At their worst, they appear more like a toast-rack on its side.”

Mr Milligan said that the objectors could see the merit of encouraging parking buildings near the city centre, but they should not override factors that made the city centre attractive. For instance, the Canterbury Club’s two-level parking facility should not be allowed to rise in a way that detracted from the old library and club buildings on either side.

Any heightened extension “should be set back far enough so that the two buildings stand out in front, rather than being tucked in round the side,” said Mr Milligan. The Inner City Operation Neighbourhood group said that a parking building in the Commercial 3 zone should be ancillary to a main building, not a predominant use on a site. Each structure should be treated as a specified departure so that each case would be treated on its merits.

The Christchurch Civic Trust said that a four-storey height restriction should be put on parking buildings in the Commercial 3 zone.

Such buildings should be located to avoid environmental areas and historic buildings, said a submission by the Canterbury Regional committee of the Historic Places Trust.