TOWN PLANNING.

Evening Star, Issue 21077, 14 April 1932, Page 8

TOWN PLANNING.

There is promise that the Town Planning Act, now six years old, may not always be a dead letter in Dunedin. Some weeks ago dissatisfaction was being expressed by certain suburban residents against the intrusion of a dance hall into their neighbourhood. No objection was felt against dance halls as such, but it was considered that this one had been erected in the wrong neighbourhood. When, at an earlier stage, -it was sought to prevent its erection upon that ground, the best advice obtainable was that that could not bo done under the Town Planning Act. Theoretically it could be done, but not in practice. And so at that time no action was taken. We have moved a little forward. At the meeting of the City Council last night the Works Committee reported that it had ;«ven consideration to an application for a building permit to convert a building in another quarter of the city into a shop. Objection had been made to the proposal by some of the residents in the locality on the ground that the area was strictly residential; that the introduction of a shop would bo likely to depreciate property. The committee therefore recommended that the application’be not granted on the ground that under section 34 of the Town Planning Act, 1926, as amended by the 1929 Act, the existence of shop premises at the site in question would be out of harmony with its surroundings, and would be likely to contravene the town planning scheme for the area when completed and approved. The recommendation was not confirmed by the council. It was suggested, reasonably enough, that first things were not being put first, and that before a man who might have bought a property for a certain purpose was prevented from using it for that purpose because of incompatibility with surroundings there should be some public notification of what the council’s plan for the surroundings was. In other words, there should be adherence to the method laid down by tho Director of Town Planning in a letter to our columns, in which he maintained the effectiveness of the Act to deal with matters which had been argued to be beyond its powers. “It is sufficient that a local authority should express its intention to zone a particular part of its district for a specified use under its town planning scheme, and thereafter to refuse applications for buildings or other works which would not be in conformity with that use.” The recommendation was referred back to the committee for further consideration. But it is something that the matter should have come forward at all, and be treated as a serious subject by the council. On this special application and the objections to it we express no judgment, but the occasion is the first one we can recall of residents seeking to exert an influence as to how their special area should be developed; and we believe that, as a general principle, it is highly important that they should have views_ on such a matter, and that their views should be considered. Otherwise some of the pleasantest residential parts of the city might be soon reduced to the appearance of a new mining settlement. With no reference again to' this particular case, the council, when it grants permits for new buildings, has the smallest care, normally, for what they will look like. So long as they comply with very simple building by-laws and give the promise of new rates, it is content. The absence of planning, however, may have its dangers even for the council. The complaint of deterioration of property, warranting a reduction of valuations and therefore of rates, was not upheld by the Assessment Court when it was made in connection with the dance hall, but on another occasion, or in different circumstances, it might be upheld. There is another argument, besides justice, for the declaring of, zoning areas, for set purposes, before control of building is sought to be imposed. If that were first done, it would be more difficult, obviously, for anyone to establish a claim to compensation for injuries which he might think caused to him by regulation. Other cities, apparently, are further ahead in this matter than we are. Cr Wilson stated last night that the council had done nothing in regard to town planning. The city engineer had said that he would require a special staff to deal with it. Surveys, no doubt, are required, which cannot bo made without money. But a zoning system should at least bo an aspiration for both council and ratepayers to keep in view.