Green belt key to scheme

Press, 11 April 1979, Page 6

Green belt key to scheme

The framework of a new Canterbury draft scheme — centred on a significant expansion of the controversial green belt confining Christchurch suburbs within definite limits — was approved yesterday by the Regional Planning Authority. However, a Papafua County member, Mr G. T. Wright, said that his area would oppose an interpretation of the green belt that would rule out most farm dwellings on smallholdings.

i After the draft is published it will be sent to local bodies and subjected to four months of public comment before it is considered again. (a simplified public relations (pamphlet on its basic points is being prepared. The scheme shows where residential development should occur north and south of Christchurch city in the next 20 years, and areas which would, be under strict development controls to ensure proper planning of their growth.

Those areas are RollestonBurnham, Woodend. Travis Swamp, Ferrymead. and Worslevs Spur, on the Port Hills. Deferred urban areas, where residential and other urban development would he postponed because spending there could divert growth pressures from planned areas, also figure in the scheme. In the meantime, such areas would be under green-belt building restrictions.

Part of the Christchurch urban area is in that category. It also includes areas north-east of Kaiapoi, north of Rangiora, north of Woodend, south-west of Templeton. and some Hornby and Sockburn industrial areas.

Two special rural industrial areas are included, both in Waimairi County. They are north-east of Christchurch Airport and at Chaneys Corner.

Part of the special development control areas could be transferred to the deferred urban designation after they had been appropriately planned.

“It is important to agree now on a general direction.” Isaid the authority’s chairman (Mr D. B, Rich). "After four months of objection and comment we will be in a better position to debate the merits of what is proposed.” A present limited green belt around metropolitan Christchurch has not worked very well, perhaps because views differ about what housing should be allowed in it.

In spite of regional and district scheme restrictions, the rate of population growth in that belt has been as fast as in the urban area next to it.

The Regional Planning Authority has tried to curb questionable building, but Planning Tribunal and court; decisions . in future will! probably determine how sue-) cessful it will be in halting the spread of a rural sur-i burbia on small lots.

The expanded belt would surround such areas as Tai Tapu, Lincoln, West Melton, Templeton, Prebbleton, Belfast, Spencerville, Brooklands, Kaiapoi, Woodend, and Rangiora.

Nearly all of the Port Hills area would be under the green belt, apart from Worsleys Spur, Lyttelton, Governor’s Bay and. part of Mount Pleasant.

“Of all forms of, development, houses have the widest range of ‘justifications’ for being exempted from the provisions of regional and district planning schemes,” says the dj-aft. “Consequently, they constitute the strongest and most persistent single force against the urban containment policy. “An emerging pattern of houses on smallholdings in a remote area can grow or decline slowly without any harmful region-wide effects. On the fringe of urban areas, however, under development pressure, it can only grow. “Every permitted unit fuels the impetus for additional growth, and it cannot be expected to reach any particular state and stop there without the most stringent control.” Opponents of that view say the policy will penalise small-farmers who must live )on their land for proper supervision. Mr Wright said that the Paparua County Council would continue to be at loggerheads with the authority because of that policy. The green belt covered a big part of Paparua’s rural area, as it did in Waimairi County. The scheme’s principal aim will be to contain urban Christchurch and redevelop it, while channelling other growth to areas between Kaiapoi and Rangiora to the north, and around Rflieston to the south-west.

Possible longer-term growth areas would be at Ashburton and in the Amberley area. “Any encouragement of urban growth in other areas should await the establishment of this basic frame-

work of settlement areas,” the scheme says. Rural services and employment opportunities for more remote areas would still be promoted in Darfield, Leeston, Oxford,and Akaroa.

In addition, development [of Sheffield, Coalgate, and [Little River would be )encouraged as centres which [serve their parts of the region. Limited expansion of other minor towns would be allowed under the scheme. But. the entire settlement distribution strategy would depend on the green belt’s success.

According to the scheme, urban development pressures would be transferred from north to south some time in the next 20 years by encouraging lower growth rates north of the city.

The authority’s dejxrty chairman (Mr T. M. Inch) said that he doubted a local ‘body’s power to discourage growth once it was under ■Way. He questioned how realistic the authority’s "turning on. turning off policy” would be .in the long run. “It. will have some hazards,” he said. Others questioned the wisdom of directing too much growth towards the large special development control area over Rolleston and Burnham.

"It would be better to delay development in the area until there is a lot of pressure, and it can be done in some style,” said Mr F. M. Warren. It could become only a second-class dormitory suburb if not done carefully, he said.

Authority planners said that that was the guiding philosphy behind special development control provisions > — to ensure that nothing

proceeded until it was properly planned. Mr Warren also asked whether employment limits in the Christchurch central business district were desirable. The authority has said that there must be some ■growth restraint to avoid building more motorways to get workers and shoppers to and from the city centre. Mr W. E. Walker, of Ellesmere County, said that he could never see Rolleston’s becoming a fast-growth area. It would he “open to the wolves, politically and otherwise,” if it was tagged as a new development area, he said.

The scheme says that Rolleston should have a population of no more than 10,000 by 1996. “The scheme will only be as good as we are successful in these policies,” Mr Rich said.