NARROWER STREETS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20479, 4 December 1934, Page 12

NARROWER STREETS.

City Council Wants Law Amended. More elastic conditions in regard to the width of streets were suggested by the By-laws Committee of the Christchurch City Council in a report to last evening’s meeting of the council. On the recommendation of the committee, it was decided to submit the following remit for consideration at the next Municipal Conference; “ That .the Town Planning Act be amended to enable boroughs which have prepared town planning schemes to formulate and give legal effect to definite street width policies, without complying with the requirements of any other Acts.” “ The reason for submitting this remit,” stated the report, “is that the laying out of all streets to a standard and uniform width of 66ft is now universally recognised as an uneconomic procedure in the development of a borough and a city. Not only is the initial cost of construction greater, but also subsequent maintenance is greater than is warranted or necessary in the cases of streets which carry residential traffic only. In such cases, modern practice is to lay out residential streets to a width of approximately 50ft, a condition being imposed that no building shall be erected within 35ft of the original centre line of such streets. “It is suggested for consideration that the necessary legal requirements might be modified to enable those boroughs which have prepared town planning schemes to adopt a definite policy regarding street widths without the necessity of complying with the requirements of other Acts, as is apparently implied by Clause 22 (3) of the Town Planning Act, 1926. “ A schedule might be prepared of all streets in a borough or city which are less than 66ft wide, and the policy regarding any widenings determined by the local authority. The policy would necessarily be governed by the zoning under the town planning scheme.”