TOWN PLANNING BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19415, 25 August 1926, Page 14

TOWN PLANNING BILL.

BETTERMENT COMPLEXITIES. AN APPEAL FOR DELAY. VIEWS OF WELLINGTON'S MAYOR [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN COIIRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON. Tuesday. The Mayor of Wellington, Mr. C. J. B. Norwood, still hopes that the Town Planning Bill will not be finally dealt with by Parliament this session, although it has passed the House of Representatives. "No one is more anxious to see upon the statute book a practicable town planning measure than I am," said Mr. Norwood to-day," and it is to the credit of the Government that some definite steps aro being taken. But in my opinion the bill ag passed by the House possesses elements of danger, particularly to the larger cities, and I believe that the Government would have been wiser had it delayed final consideration of the bill until the municipal conference had had opportunity of full discussion of the proposals. " The betterment clauses provide, I feel certain, the basis for endless litigation. Any town planning scheme for Wellington must affect a large number of separate properties and the procedure provided for assessing the amount of betterment is an application to the Compensation Court under the Public Works Act, made by the City Council as claimant. " In my opinion it would have been better had the onus of fixing the betterment to be charged upon the owner been left with the Valuer General with the right of appeal by individuals to an unbiased and competent tribunal which could conduct its proceedings with a minimum of expense. I have intentions of recommending the recasting of Te Aro fiat as a preliminary to the larger scheme and as practically every holding in that area will be affected it is not difficult to see that if each owner exercises his right of requiring a claim to be heard by the Compensation Court enough will be provided to keep that Court going for an indefinite period. "Power is given to municipal authorities to prevent buildings being erected in areas in the planned area in contravention to the general scheme. This is a very desirable power from the public bodies' point of view but as the public bodies are not forced to take over the properties affected and many years may elapse before the work is actually carried out serious difficulties must arise in connection with compensation. My interpretation is that this provision will impose a very severe hardship upon either the owners of such lands or the council. Betterment will be a matter of deforred payments oyer a long period. The financial liability arising from compensation' payments may thus arise at a time when the corporation is' short of money; the liability would then have to be met by loan for the Local Bodies Finance Act of 1921 makes it imperative that every local body must annually live within its income. The amount of the liability arising from compensation payments could not, however, be estimated until the compensation and the amount of betterment also were ascertained. The probability, therefore, would v bo that the liability would be an actual fact before there was ra possibility of raising money to meet it, - ' " Great complexities must arise when these schemes aro embarked upon," concluded Mr. Norwood; " and it as hardly likely that amendments can be; made in the law in time to overcome ' difficulties which will arise from the application of the present proposals. I trust that the bill may bo held up so that fuller consideration may bo given these and other, points and that it may emerge later as a measure of great value to the community." '