The Gloucester

Press, 14 July 1989, Page 8

The Gloucester

Sir,—Mr Egden says that he owns 22-28 Gloucester Street. The High Court restraining order apparently refers to ■_-18-28 Gloucester Street. I am very concerned that neither of the resolutions passed by the council afthe special meeting ori' July 4

referred to the property in question by its legal description. When the district scheme change for the RSA zone is publicly notified, I intend to support it, with the request that clarification be sought from the High Court as to exactly which properties are covered by its restraining order, and that the district scheme change refer to the excluded properties by their legal description. If this is not done, there is a risk that properties not included in The Gloucester tower development proposal could be mistakenly exempted from the scheme change, which I am sure was not the intention of councillors. — Yours, etc., (Mrs) ANN LEWIS. July 7,1989.

[The City Planner, Mr J. G. Dryden, replies: “The council is bound by the interim decision of the High Court to exclude numbers 18 to 28 Gloucester Street from the proposed change to the city plan. Legal descriptions are the best way to identify properties, but in this case street addresses are adequate. I am aware of the difficulty with No. 18 Gloucester Street and hope this matter can be clarified at future hearings.”] .

Sir,—Preservation,., of houses in the west end of the city is wishful thinking, since any land agent ■advertising them as built T of “permanent materials” could risk court action; so their ultimate, if piecemeal, replacement ; should be ’and an r over-alF' plan taken in . hand. ! High-rise blocks are a solution, and a good one,.because the buildings would 1 each occupy not much more than the site of one house, thus sparing most of the trees which make that end of the 'City so attractive. Twenty tower, blocks of varying design and scale would house a larger population, surrounded by a park of mature trees — a communal garden, not the “land vacuum” envisaged by Colin P. C. Jackson -(JUIy 8). Instead of looking to the example set by the Arts Centre i (which lacks the grandeur and cohesion of its southern predecessor, the University of Otago, but “just growed” like Topsy), we could extend the beauty of the Botanic Gardens further into the city.—Yours, etc., W. A. SUTTON. July 8, 1989.