Bridge club decision soon

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 9

Bridge club decision soon

A decision on the future of the United Bridge Club’s Riccarton rooms will be announced by the Waimairi District Council soon. The club, at which smoking is forbidden, presented submissions supporting its use of the Masonic Lodge rooms in Totara Street at a council hearing yesterday. Decision was reserved. A deputation of local residents who objected to the club’s presence in the street also attended. In March, 1982, the club arranged to lease the rooms. The Lodge, which had been in the street since 1929, sought the written consent of the council for the use which was approved. Complaints were received by the council soon after the club opened in January, 1983. The main concern was with the noise of vehicles leaving the club, and carparking in the street. The residents presented a petition of complaint to the council’s town planning and by-laws in

March, 1983. In may, 1983, the matter went before the Planning Tribunal which ruled that the club’s use of the building was not permitted under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1977. Yesterday's hearing before the Waimairi town planning committee was the result of an application by the club and the lodge for a conditional use in a residential zone which if granted would allow the club to continue the rooms. Mr J. R. Milligan spoke on behalf of Lodge Riccarton No. 276 and the United Bridge Club. He said the question was not if the club was a good thing, but if it could be sited in a residential street. “Nothing in the activities of the bridge club could be considered offensive or disturbing to the residents,” he said. Parking seemed to be the principal issue. The lodge has no offstreet parking and members

of it and the club have to park on Totara Street. Under the council’s District Scheme and the proposed reviewed scheme any place of assembly must provide specified car-parking. The lodge was built before such requirements were adopted. Objectors seemed to assume that they had the right to park on their street, said Mr Milligan. Parking on a street, however, was a public right rather than a private right. There was no proof in the report of the council’s traffic engineer, Mr P. L. Atkinson, that increased car-parking on Totara Street caused more traffic problems, Mr Milligan said. Mr J. O’Connor, a former president, and member of the bridge club, spoke in support of the application. The club had peviously met in a converted house in Picton Avenue and had not had complaints from residents about car-parking or noise. The club now met on Monday and Thursday even-

ings, and on Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in winter, and on one Saturday a month. The number of cars parked in the street was 20 to 27 when bridge sessions were held, he said. Mr T. W. Lucas of the lodge said it held meetings up to four times a month. Attendance varied from 100 . to 20 people. Mr Lucas said he had studied car movement in the street on a bridge club night, last September. When the club members left from 10.30 to 10.45 p.m. “the noise created was so slight that at one end of the line of parked cars I could not hear movement at the other,” he said. Waimairi’s assistant planner, Mr A. P. McNamara, recommended that the application be declined as it did not conform with the District Scheme, ■ particularly in respect to parking. The use would have a detrimental effect on the amenities of the neighbour-

i hood, he said. , Mr Atkinson said the i problem was not so much the “accident potential” ; caused by the numbers of I cars parking in the street ; but the “inconvenience and other problems associated > with it.” i Objections were heard from residents of 21 neigh- ! bouring properties. Eight objections were presented in I person. i Objectors said that if the i application was approved the quiet residential nature ; of the street would be seriously eroded. i Increased car-parking and i movement of cars in the I street caused by the club was a danger and disturbance, and could lower property values, they said. One objector said that during the last eight weeks they had counted 50 cars generated by lodge members and an average 30 cars i for each bridge session. Children were kept awake by the departure of cars on club evenings, the residents said. ,’ r J _