Chch people ‘denied chance on hills’

Press, 13 May 1988, Page 7

Chch people ‘denied chance on hills’

By

SUE LANCASTER

Many Christchurch people are being denied the chance to enjoy the benefits of living on the Port Hills because bureaucrats have created “fancy-priced monopolies” there, says a Huntsbury Spur landowner.

Mr Ron Shiels has. been battling to get housing allowed on Huntsbury Spur since he first bought 25-four-hectare blocks five years ago. “I only got the land up there because I believed it would be better used and that I would be able to sell sections .cheaper than anyone else,” said Mr Shiels.

Several months ago the Planning Tribunal said the spur should be zoned rural, which allows build-

ings to be erected in conjunction with farming activities.

Mr Shiels said the spur had been left in a “disastrous state of stagnation” because houses had not been permitted.

Where houses had been built on the hills there was "law and order,” tidiness and native trees.

. Mr Shiels, who has sold 17 sections, said the spur was eroded, had noxious weeds, “crevasses,” and was a fire danger. Landowners, including himself, had let it go “to rack and ruin” because it was open to vandals and thieves.

Most building sections on the hills were “ridiculously expensive” because there were few sections for sale.

Many Christchurch

people would want to live on the hills if they realised the advantages, he said.

There was no frost, different temperatures, a view, and a more comfortable and healthy life. Mr Shiels, who has studied natural medicine for 20 years, said he would continue the battle to get more land developed on the Port Hills after he had sold the remaining sections. The Heathcote County Chairman, Mr Oscar Alpers, said last evening that three-way negotiations were under way between the Canterbury United Council, the Heathcote County Council, and the landowners on what would be allowed to be built under the rural zoning designation.