FUTURE PLANNING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26531, 5 August 1947, Page 4

FUTURE PLANNING

Development of Areas Around Dunedin INITIAL • STEP TAKEN A step towards deciding the important question of who is to be responsible for planning the future development of the. Dunedin metropolitan area was taken last night, when a deputation from the Otago Regional Planning Council waited on the Works Committee of the City Council to advocate tjie preparation of a definite policy in this regard. The deputation’s speakers, Mr M. S. Myers, chairman of the council, and Mr H. L. Paterson, convener of the council’s Technical Sub-committee, suggested that a meeting of all local bodies in the greater metropolitan area should be called to discuss the project. The chairman of the Works Committee, Cr Ireland, told the Daily Times last night that a definite decision as to the policy his committee would adopt in the matter would be made at the next meeting, after members had studied some reports on the subject. Every member, he said, was in full accord with the principles of metropolitan planning, and major subdivisions had been, and were being, viewed not only in the light of their oum development, but the development of the land beyond them.

The deputation told the Works Committee that it was of the opinion that a Metropolitan Town Planning Authority was required to undertake the planning of areas within a defined radius of the centre of the city. It was recommended that such a body should set up a technical committee to prepare a scheme plan for the area concerned. The local bodies concerned are the Dunedin City Council, the St. Kilda, Port Chalmers. West Harbour, Mosgiel and Green Island Borough Councils, and the Waikouaiti, Peninsula and Taieri County Councils. Government’s Power In the event of these local bodies not wishing to embark on a major plan of the nature required by the needs of the community, the Government. under the Town Planning Act, has the authority to step in and plan the area itself. It is understood that the Minister responsible is loth to take action in any community and that he has, in the past, avoided such tactics.- However, should the Regional Planning Council make a request that action be taken, the Government would be bound to take notice and Dunedin would be placed in the invidious position of having its domestic affairs dictated from outside. The role of the Regional Planning Council is, to a large extent, advisory. It has neither the authority to formulate nor to implement any civic or district plan. Considerable thought has been given to the type of plan to be suggested, and, it is understood, a development area of 15 to 20 miles radius around Dunedin is foreseen by the council. In an interview with the Daily Times last night Mr Myers said that the idea was to lay down a bold pattern for the development of the community. All the local bodies mentioned were, wholly or in part, occupying positions in this area. The council was not concerned with details of street construction and such minor matters, but with the general zoning of heavy and light industries, civic areas, residential areas and the like. “ The time is surely coming when ' Great Britain must send a considerable proportion of her population to the dominions,” Mr Myers said. "Those cities which have planned ' for large-scale development are going to be in a positior to benefit by absorbing a good proportion i of the influx to this country.” At the present time, because of the lack of a proper plan, there was no means of preventing any person or company from setting up a factory in any residential area of Dunedin, unless residents obtained an injunction against the proposing builder. A proper plan would eliminate this undesirable state of affairs. Albert Street Extension Lack of foresight was quoted to the Daily Times- by another member of the deputation as the reason for the expending of over £70,000 on the Albert street extension, merely to give access to Highgate. It was pointed out that future heavy costs would have to be borne before adequate access could be obtained to other growing parts of the metropolitan area. Should the Government exercise its prerogative and step in, it is probable that great emphasis would be placed on the Wingatui housing and industrial project, in which the Government is vitally interested. The Regional Planning Council has expressed its determination to press for development on a far broader scale in every part of the district surrounding Dunedin.

Other members of the* deputation from the Regional Planning Council besides Mr Myers and Mr Paterson were .Messrs W. T. Langbein (district railways engineer). H. A. Adams (chief surveyor, Lands and Survey Department), and J. V. Trezise (secretary).