Bexley land may be rezoned residential

Press, 14 August 1984, Page 1

Bexley land may be rezoned residential

The 30ha Bexley employment zone may be rezoned residential,, a move that would reverse an eight-year-old Christchurch City Council decision to develop the site as an industrial area. The council’s policy and finance committee called yesterday for a report reassessing the council decision of 1976 to zone the land as a special industrial employment zone. It had previously been zoned residential. Earlier this month the council’s employment promotion committee approved

development of the site with a view to selling it. The committee’s recommendation was not reached without dissent, two councillors recording votes against the development of the site. Yesterday’s decision to call for a further report on the use of the land will defer any development or marketing of the land for a month until the report is received. A decision to reverse the zoning of the land would require changes to the council’s District Scheme. Cr Maurice Carter, who put the motion for a further

report said he realised a change in the scheme would be required, but he believed that the industrial potential that had prompted the 1976 decision had not been proved in the succeeding eight years. “All I want is for us to step back and take another look at the land and what use we put it to,” he said. “Its zoning was changed in the first place because it was felt that the area had industrial potential. There has been little interest in it since then. Perhaps it would be better used as a residen-

tial area.” Cr Vicki Buck, chairman of the employment promotion committee which had recommended design work on the site plus drainage and sewerage work begin and a comprehensive marketing campaign begin, disagreed. “The worse possible thing for that area would be for it to be rezoned residential. I guarantee that if it is you will get another large cluster of low-income family housing in the east part of the city,” she said.

The council had made a commitment to the people of the area to develop the area to provide employment in that area, the part of the city with the highest unemployment rate. Cr Carter said there was a large industrial area in Maces Road, near the zone. There were surplus areas in the block and developers had not found much interest in that land. Cr David Close suggested first marketing the land for “possible nibbles” of interest from firms which could use the site. “We have been eight years without nibbles,” Cr Carter said. Cr Rex Lester said the council could not afford to be a “passive body letting oportunities pass over its head.” It should fulfil its commitment and develop the land. The people of Bexley and the east part of Christchurch had a right to work in the same area in which they lived. The time for industrial expansion was now, Cr Buck said. “We have spent $600,000 on this land. The $275,000 needed to develop Stage 1 is available. The longer we wait the greater the chance that that money will not

meet the work and we have to use rates,” she said.

The Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, argued there was nothing to be lost from a deferral of one month for the report. “In view of the $700,000 already sppent on the land by a former Labour council the total cost must be more than $1 million. Before we spend any more on this land we should be assured that the industrial potential it is being developed for actually exists,” he said. Cr Buck said the council had to look to recouping the money it had spent on the land. “I believe we can but it is a long term proposal,” she said.

As a local authority the council could afford to take a long term view, she said. The employment promotion committee’s recommendations had deliberately

been limited to work on the land that would have to be done anyway, Cr Buck said. “Let’s face it, as it is now the site is a mess. If it was privately owned the council would be asking for work to be done,” she said. The council had actively to market the land to promote interest in it, Cr Buck said. The Town Clerk, Mr John Gray, said there would be a conflict of interest if the council were to call for a report that might alter the uses of the land while simultaneously promoting it to developers for present uses. If there was to be a report it should precede marketing of the area, Mr Gray said. The deputy general manager (works), Mr Harold Surtees, said the report would definitely be presented to the next committee meeting in a month.

“I can tell you, however, that the city planner is of the opinion that an industrial zoning is the correct one for the land,” he said.

A move to have the recommendation for the report replaced with the recommendation of the employment promotion committee was lost. . The employment committee recommendation included the development of stage 1 of the land, comprehensive marketing, the development of a buffer reserve along the boundary on the zone, the retention of stages 2 and 3 for hardfill dumping, and a sub-commit-tee to implement the proposal. “It would be a mistake to rezone the land residential,” Cr Buck said. Cr Carter: It may well have been a mistake to zone it industrial. In fact, it may have been a mistake to buy it in the first place.