TOWN-PLANNING AND HIGH BUILDINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 147690, 8 September 1911, Page 4

TOWN-PLANNING AND HIGH BUILDINGS.

The weakness of all idealism is that its votaries interest themselves much more in the vague and distant than in the urgent needs of the immediate present. This must be the reason why the City of Auckland has no by-law regulating the height of buildings, although it theoretically approves of town-planning and is able to spend large sums upon parks. The matter came before the City Council last night in the form of an application for permission to erect in High-street a building of considerably over 100 ft in height. Mr. Bush very properly declined to recommend the granting of the application, and recommended that the by-laws should be amended "so as to limit the height of buildings in proportion to the width of the street on which they abutted." We may say at once that no local authority in a civilised community is justified in permitting light and air to be blocked from the public thoroughfares by buildings erected without any regard to public rights. In the rivalry of building, aided by the. peculiar strength of modern building materials, it is inevitable that architects should design, and builders erect, arid owners pay for, the most roomy structure which can be set up on a limited area. Nobody blames them. f6r this— long as they act within the law ; but everybody should blame the City Council if its members do not take prompt steps to prevent the creation of a most pernicious nuisance. There are already buildings in Auckland which are owing to the narrowness oßojjgo streets on which they are situjM a -and their number will be multiplied with dangerous rapidity unless preventive measures are taken. Mr. Bush's suggestion of the form limitation of height should take is sound. American proposals for dealing with their notorious " sky scraper" evil—which converts public streets into dark and dismal canyons and deprives the public of its inherent rights to light and airis that no building should bo built to project over a line drawn at a given angle from the centre of a street. This would enable owners of deep sections to build additional storeys at the rear. But whatever form regulation is to take should be decided at once and the bylaw, when made, should be rigidly enforced.