STREET WIDENING

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 71, 21 September 1927, Page 10

STREET WIDENING

TARANAKI STREET

AN AMENDED DECISION

TffiE LEVY BUILDING

A somewhat amended policy has beea adopted by the City Council in regard to the widening of the lower length of Taranaki street from its present 66ft to 100 ft. All was moderately dear sailing as regarded purchases of land to enable the widening to be carried out with the exception of the properties at the corner of Taranaki and Manners streets, where the uncompleted Levy building stands, but it was decided, ia order to get overWost of these difficulties, to take, under the Public Works Act, the property in Manners street adjoining the corner section, so that the boundary of the Levy section could be moved back.

Various obstacles stood in the way of this procedure, and it has' now been decided to take only the corner' section under the Public Works. Act The price to be paid by the City Council ■will be decided in the ordinary courts; of Compensation, Court procedure. The way is now practically clear fori a commencement of the widening work in Parish and Old Customhouse street*, but no starting date has been named so far. Progress has also been made ia regard to the widening of Mercer street in its length between Willis and Victoria streets, though there must be still more delay before actual widening ia commenced. The properties on the.northern side of this length of street are owned by the College Board of Governors, and the agreement between tha' board and the council provides for rebuilding of the fronts of the premises which will be. cut back, and ultimately, rebuilding.

Some time ago the Board of Governors called for tenders for the lease of their buildings in this area, with certain conditions as to rebuilding, but only a part tender, not involving »hop; premises fronting Willis street, was accepted, though there were tenders covering the whole of the area, and the Board of Governors is calling for new; tenders in respect of the Willis street premises. '

It is understood that it was the intention of one tenderer had he been successful to rebuild the whole of the block with a sis or seven storied bnildr ing. '

The first shot in the widening of Manners street to its some-day -width! of 70ft has been fired by one property, owner on the southern side of th« street (the north side will not be realigned), but when his present plan* are carried out he will set back tha new building, and will carry on the shop business at the present alignment, the front portion to be regarded as a temporary building only. No doubt thia arrangement will hold good for several years, new buildings going up to th« planned alignment, but the old front! remaining as they are until the council decides that the whole southern side shall go back.

It is fairly plain that this is the only way in which the widening could be carried out economically and evenly, for if one new building stood back 20ffc from its neighbours hero and another fifty or so yards along, Manners street would be fearful and wonderful to,behold until the piecemeal widening wai complete, though in such a street a.% Constable street, where the same system of widening is being adopted, this staggering does not greatly matter. In, Thorndon quay also the new buildings go directly back from the '66ft to the 80ft line.

The City Council could, of course, make one clean job of the widening of Manners street, or any other street, by buying up land and buildings in a wholesale fashion and cutting frontages back along the whole line, but councillors—and ratepayers, too—would feel distinctly faint when the bill was presented, and the more economic, if; slower, procedure is therefore followed of calling upon owners to set back; frontages when rebuilding becomes ne» cessary, for by this method the city,generally speaking, pays compensation in respect of land only, and not of builds ings.

Several of the streets in Te Arai Flat area are also to be widened, unless town-planning leads to a change in a decision of the council of a couple of yeaTs ago, in this same gradual manner.