Strict control for gasworks site

Press, 2 August 1985, Page 1

Strict control for gasworks site

by KAY FORRESTER Stringent conditions, including soil tests, will be imposed on the Moorhouse Park subdivision of the old Christchurch gasworks site, for which a scheme plan has been approved. The scheme plan for a 25lot industrial development by Lyndale Investments, Ltd, was presented to the Christchurch City Council’s town-planning committee yesterday. The city land surveyor, Mr Kit Iversen, told the committee of some of the conditions that would be imposed on any developments on the site because of the possible toxic content in the soil resulting from the gasworks having been there. The site was the subject of much controversy when a chemical engineer, Dr John Peet, of the University of Canterbury, said last year that industrial development on the site was risky without extensive excavation of

poisoned soil. More controversy followed when extensive clearing work done on the site by the Gas Company resulted in possibly toxic soil being dumped at the Waimairi landfill site. Mr Iversen said a soil test on each lot would be required before approval of its use for particular purposes. A food-processing business would require a “cleaner” soil test than, for instance, a car sales yard where the lot would be sealed over. This condition was imposed jointly with the Health Department which would have to issue a foodhandling licence to a foodprocessing business. He told the committee that the unusual step of releasing scheme plan details in open meeting had been made because of the public interest in the site and its possible chemical contamination. Some soil tests had been

done in a strip on the site’s western end where the gasworks had converted coal to gases. Those tests had shown some chemical contaminants in the soil. The chemicals were in the soil tested. What that meant for the future was uncertain. The chemical would be diluted by stormwater and the Gas Company had ceased production. The Christchurch Drainage Board would test stormwater on the site to assess the runoff of any chemicals. Further soil analysis was now being done. Mr Iversen said the possible toxic wastes in the soil made it unsuitable for treeplanting and a suggested 1400 sq m reserve on the scheme plan had been abandoned. Instead the subdivider would pay about $500,000 cash in lieu of reserves, easily the biggest cash reserve contribution to the council for some years. Where the money was spent depended on whether

the Moorhouse Park subdivision was judged to be in the centre city or outside that central area. If it was central city, the money could be spent on something such as Victoria Square, if outside on an amenity such as Queen Elizabeth II Park. This was in keeping with the council’s practice of spending reserve contributions in the areas from which they came. Other conditions imposed on the site would include landscaping, use, and Christchurch Drainage Board easements over the lots. Several of these conditions could be made a covenant on the lots’ titles. Before a building could be put on any of the lots, an engineer’s report on the site would be required, Mr Iversen said. He could not say yet what other conditions might be imposed; it depended on what happened when development on the site began.

“The first thing the subdivider will do is cut a road. What turns up in the soil when that road is cut may dictate further conditions,” he said. Several of the councillors at yesterday’s meeting were concerned that potential buyers of lots be made aware of the site’s possibly toxic nature. Cr Matthew Glubb asked what obligations the developer had to customers to tell them about the site. Mr Iversen said the results of soil tests and other tests would be available at the council offices but unless the customer sought that information he would not necessarily be told it. There was no provision for attaching that information to a lot’s title.. Cr Glubb also questioned the actions of the developer in posting a large sign on the site last month and beginning to market the sites, before council approval.

Once a scheme plan was approved the owners of a property subdivision could market it, Mr Iversen said. Wrightson NMA, the firm handling the sale, said that interest in the lots when they were put up for sale on July 11 was high. Prices on the' lots ranged from $4500 a perch on the Moorhouse Avenue frontage to $3OOO a perch along the back of the site, said Mr Roger Stark, of Wrightsons. The land was suitable for light industrial uses, car yards, and heavy industrial uses along the railway sidings towards the back of the property. Lyndale Investments bought the sha site in November, reputedly for $2 million. Mr Iversen told councillors yesterday he thought the site was worth about $5 million when developed. The site should be developed, he said. It was a big potential rates earner for the council.