BUILDING HEIGHTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 14

BUILDING HEIGHTS

SYDNEY'S 15OFT. LIMIT

INCREASE NOT PROBABLE LORD MAYOR DISAPPROVES It is not likely that the Sydney City Council will approve of any increase in the permissible height of city buildings, which is now 150 ft. Tho matter is being considered by a committee consisting of representatives of tho City Council, architects' and engineers' institutes, and of the different Government bodies that liavo to approve of plans before any city building can be erected. This committee is drafting clauses for a new City of Sydney, Building Act, which will permit the construction of modern buildings without vexatious and costly delays such as are now being experienced. Tho Lord Mayor, Alderman I-lagon, stated lately that tho recommendations of tho committee had not yet come officially before the City Council, but ho was hopeful that they would soon bo submitted so that a new Building Act might be passed during the coming session of Parliament. "I will oppose any increase in the height of city buildings," said the Lord Mayor. "In fact, 1 think in somo of tho streets tho buildings are already too high. They eliminate sunlight from many offices, and consequently are unhealthy. We do not want a second New York in Sydney. The streets aro far too narrow for that, and if the height of buildings is increased the traffic will become so congested that the streets will bo unable to carry it. Big Outlay Already Approved "The city ratepayers cannot afford any further resumptions for big schemes of street widening. Those already approved of will cost almost £7,000,000 when completed. There is still sufficient land available away from tho main streets to provide the additional accommodation that may bo required in the iminediato future '" "The inevitable effect of sending buildings sky-high would be to bring more traffic into our already overcrowded zones," said Mr. J. C. Watson, president of the N.K.M.A. "The additional traffic would correspondingly intensify our transport problems, and they already are very serious. The cause of congestion of street and footpath traflic in the city proper is tho excessive volume of it in relation to tho width of our thoroughfares. "When street space is designed to servo a four or five-storey town, it cannot bo stretched to meet tho needs of a fifteen or twenty-storey city. What must happen if the building limit is raised excessively is that, at tremendous expense to the city, thoroughfares , must bo widened still further, underground systems extended, buildings colonnaded or arcadcd, or other such remedies adopted." High Rates and Taxes

Representatives of city propertyowners say that the increasing rates and taxes*on kind in the central portion of the city will inevitably force the City Council to increase the permissible height of buildings. If this is not done, rates and taxes must be reduced, but reduction is not practicable, owing to the heavy capital commitments of the City Council for street widening and city improvements. Therefore, the land must be made more productive, by the erection of larger buildings.