TOWN PLANNING

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 136, 13 June 1927, Page 3

TOWN PLANNING

WHAT THE LAW PROVIDES

ADDRESS BY DIRECTOR

Mr. K. B. Hammond (Director of Town Planning) visited Upper Hutt on. Saturday nigbi, and explained the pro. visions of the Town Planning Act to a public meeting in the Council Chambers. There was only a small attendance, but those who were present were rewarded with a lucid explanation of the requiremeiits the Act made upon local authori-

Wi^''; P- Bobertaon (Mayor of Upper Hutt) presided, and in introducing Mr Hammond mentioned particularly the civic survey map which the Act required focal bodies to furnish, ami thar;\i Went into much P«»tcr detail wan the present map supplied. Ho thought local bodies would find it a ver^ serious charge upon their resources to provide such a map. „i,^ r'A H faf T nd said tho Town Plail--nrvSt- ad COme into force »> JanuthL* yca,r" and demar«ied certain, things from local authorities by Janum^e th3o-- -ThC &St BteP »« to"bpare the civic survey may (man No 1) the chief feature "of which waa the showing in distinctive colours of industrial, business, and residential areas. ZhZ b°r°ug"'s town planning scheme came before the Town Planning Board, it would have a map showing the con&tions before the scheme were drawn up. Map No. 2, or the provisional town planning scheme required to have sefout in^it all work, p oposed in a town planning scheme, but the requirements Verc not so great as perhaps might appear from reading he regulations. Only the main essentials of town planning—traffic streets, building lines,, zoning and open spaces would be shown. „ When, the council submitted the-provisional town planning scheme to the board, members of the Department and the board would confer with the council as to whether the plan was in the best interests of the district, and provisional approval would be given it by the board. Provision was made in the Act for. tho lodging and hearing of objections to the scheme. .

Map No. 3, or the approved town planning map, was really an amended scheme of the provisional town'planniii" scheme, said' Mr. Hammond, and whefi it was completed the board would give it Us final approval. The council must then enforce the observance of the scheme,.but could alter it from time to ,time, a proceeding which might/ be particularly necessary in the case of a rapidly expanding borough. The Act also provided for compensation and betterment. Betterment, he considered, would be used largely as a set-off against compensation. Temporary proi-isions allowed among other things for. the reduction of street widths where they served purely residential areas and were not required for traffic. Streets'should be planned of a width sufficient to take the traffic only, for anything more*was a waste of money, and proper air space and amenity in the street should be obtained by" fixing the building line well back from the street boundary. He was not, however, an advocate of narrow streets. Grass margins could b«laid down and used later for widening purposes if necessary. From its position; concluded Mr. Hammond, Upper Hutt must have a great future, and might become "a self-con-tained garden city and satellite of "Wellington. There was also room there to set aside, an area outside the borough boundary as an open space for all time. A number of questions were put to and answered by Mr..Hammond, among them a request for his opinion "on the minimum size of a building section. "In. a country Jiko New Zealand,", replied Mr. Hammond, "where we have vast areas of open spaces, there does not seem to me any reason for making a building section anything less than oiiesixth of an acre." The Mayor thanked Mr.. Hammond for his address, and said he only wished that his remarks' could be incorporated in a-pamphlet for the guidance of local bodies. Mr. Hammond intimated that it was his intention to compile something of the kind. Supper was provided by the Mayor at the close of the meeting.