BOROUGH OF LOWER HUTT

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 43, 14 November 1940, Page 10

BOROUGH OF LOWER HUTT

Petition For Extension COMMISSION BEGINS HEARING County Council And Market Gardeners’ Opposition A successful issue Iu the Lower J-Itilt Borough Council of its petition to have 6836 acres outside its present boundaries included therein would mean an increase in the size of the borough to 10.542 acres. Ihe commission to which the council s petition was referred began its sitting at Lower Hutt yesterday. The petition is opposed by the llutt County Council, market gardeners and others.

The areas the borough seeks to include embrace, to the south, Gear Island and the reclamation adjacent totalling 310 acres; an industrial area south of the borough of 106 acres, partly hilly: and to the north 6420 acres, of which 1760 is level land suitable for close building development. This 6420 acres includes the market gardens area at 'Taita and the Epimi riding of the Hutt county, which is its most closely-settled area. The borough council petitioned the Governor-General under section 137 of the Municipal Corporal ions Act, which provides that "if tlie council is of opinion I hat any lands adjacent to the borough and not being ]>ortion of any other borough and town district, ought to be included in the borough, the council may present a petition to the Gov-ernor-General praying that the boundaries may be altered so as to include such adjacent lands therein.”

The chairman of tlie commission is Mr. A. M. Colliding, S.M. The other members are Mr. 11. W. .Mackintosh, Commissioner of Crown Lands, and Mr. J. P. Mcßae, District Valuer. Valuation Department. The parties are represented as follows;—Lower Hutt Borough Council, .Messrs. E. P. Bunny and N. T. Gillespie; Hutt. County Council. Mr. T. A. Hislop; Hutt Valley Producers Association Ltd., representing the market gardeners, Mr. T. I’. McCarthy: Messrs. W. G. and G R. Kells, owners mid lessees of various pieces of laud affected, Mr. E. F. Rothwell. Not Attack On County.

Mr. Bunny said that the petition was not to be regarded as an attack on tlie county administration or staff, but its purpose was to have determined whether, having regard to the growing population and expansion of industry, the area at issue should be included iu tlie borough. Lower Hutt was responsible in 1889 for the first attempt at town-planning, in New Zealand whereby residential building was restricted' to sections not. less than oneeighth of an acre in area, 40 feet frontage and 120 feet depth. The Imrough had had a town-planner engaged on a town plan for four years. A feature of this plan was the necessary co-or-dination of parts of the county or portions of any other areas touching on the borough. There was no boundary of any natural kind between any one part of the valley and another, except arbitrary boundaries. There could be no argument but that the valley should be under one local authority.

Mr. Hislop: That includes Petone? Mr, Bunny: With tlie difference that Petone lias constituted its own borough and lias tlie means of carrying out its own works; not that Petone should always remain a little corner of its own, but should form part of one whole district.

R. D. H. Hill, M.T.P.1., (London), M.S.L, Lower Butt borough town planning oflieer since March, 1936, produced a graph of population growth since the borough's inception in 1891. when, the population was 1329 and the area 3700 acres, to 1940. There had been an SO per cent, increase every live years; over Hie past 20 years it had been 40 per cent. At the same rate of increase Hie population in 1941 would be 22,010; in 1940, 30,810: in 1951, 43,140. It was 21.000 at September, 1940. From Ills knowledge of the present accommodation those estimated populations could not be housed in singiefamilv dwellings within the present boundaries: at 20,000. the borough would be fully built-up by using all available level land and single-unit dwellings. The Hutt Valley development scheme figures showed that in 1929. 2400 were employed in industry in the Lower Hutt and I’etone boroughs; in 1939, the figure was 0000. There had been £274,204 spent on construction of industrial buildings in the borough in the past five years—these occupied 50 acres. It was estimated that 20 per cent of the Hutt Valley residents were employed in industry in their own district. Tlie rapid industrial expansion necessitated the availability of considerable areas to house Ihe workers and families. - Garden Area Purchases.

Tlie Housing Department had already purchased 173 acres in the maj’kel gardening area and anol her 70 acres were under offer, said Mr. Hill. The borough town plan scheme had been co-ordinated with the Hutt '’alley Development scheme for the whole of tlie lower valley area as one urban unit.

There were 6836 acres in the area concerned. At: present there were 168 houses in the course of erection by the Housing Department in tlie county, and 85 permits had been granted to private owners in Hie Epuili riding alone. There were no sewer or water facilities available for the department, which had had to make its own provision for sewerage, which would ultimately serve the whole valley, and water.

Population Growth.

In 1926 tlie population was 71162 and the houses 1766: in 1936. tlie figures were 15,953 and 3822 respectively. In 1940 the estimated population was 21,000 and the houses 5287. Since Marell 31, 1936, 589 private and 876 Government houses bad been completed in tlie borough Referring In density anil distribution of population, Mr. Iliil said that in I’etone, due to narrow streets an-.l small allotments, the density was 29 iicrsons an acre. In Hie Lower Hutt borough the density in areas adjacent lo Water!oo Station am! Woburn Slation was 15 a gross acre. This conformed to modern subdivisions) 1 standards and would be continued through the areas to the north.

In the county the Housing Department had bought 600 acres of level land: an additional 150 was in hilly country and would be suitable for an open space or town belt. An additional ■l2O acres had been at one time or other under offer to the department. The level land available hi Hie area the borough sought was 1706 acres to Ihe north and a small, part to the south. The market gardens in the county area

occupied 147 acres, (if this. I lie department had bought 163 acres and be understood, more was under oiler. The extent of the proposed industrial zone when fully developed would be 750 io 800 acres. An industrial density of 50 employees lo the acre would give an industrial population of 35.000 to 40,000. The families and dependants of these industrial employees would have to be housed not only in the lower valley but also in the upper valley and Hie Wainui-o-Mala area. Mr. Hill’s evidence «;n unlinished when the hearing was adjourned till today.