BLOW TO EXPANSION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 96, 19 February 1947, Page 4

BLOW TO EXPANSION

FOREMOST among the major problems confronting the Whakatane Borough today is the difficulty of finding sufficient building sections upon which to erect potential homes for citizens. Many subdivisions have been made to meet the demand, and most amazing of all has been the manner in which the most improbable sites have been greedily snapped up, and in many cases actually built upon. The proof of their utility as home-sites will be proved by the course of events in the future. The major difficulty confronting property owners however, is the compulsory fixing of the price level of building sites, irrespective of the cost to the owner who is prepared to make the land available. . Instances have occurred in the past when large sub-divisions which would have been readily available have been arrested halfway owing to the State valuation staggering the price until such schemes became actually uneconomic. This was the case last week, when in an appeal against the fixed price,- the Land Sales Appeal Court, upheld the prices fixed for a potential sub-division on McGarveys Road, without even inspecting the area. The result is that the sections have been withdrawn from the market and twelve ex-servicemen who were awaiting allocation have now to look elsewhere. The price asked was £IOO less 10 per cent, to Returned Soldiers, for dry, well-situated sections less than three minutes from the business area. The Government valuation is £6O per section. Deadlock has arisen and as a result, an extremely valuable section of the Borough must remain undeveloped, while the Borough Council talk of extending the boundaries to allow for new section sites. The pros and cons of this case would be worthy of a wider investigation by either the Chamber of Commerce or the R.S.A. or both This would appear to be necessary in the interests of both the town as a whole and of its potential residents.