Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1043. PLANNING FOR TOMORROW.
ALTHOUGH, in his address to the Masterton Rotary Club on Thursday, the Borough Engineer, Mr C. R. Mabson, dealt particularly with his own proposal that Queen Street should be widened, he referred briefly to a planning scheme for Masterton which involves, he said, street widening, provision of additional open spaces, improvement of the northern and southern approaches to the business area, diversion of heavy traffic from Queen Street, new parking areas and the classification of the whole borough into special and general, residential, commercial and industrial areas. Mr Mabson said of the Queen Street widening project and of the square proposed by the Mayor (Mr Jordan) that while they both formed part of the major scheme the merits of each must be considered separately meanwhile. The whole position at present is rather vague and it is not altogether easy to understand how separate consideration can advantageously be given to any single improvement project until the broad lines of a town improvement scheme have as a whole been determined. Each project needs to be considered not only on its individual merits —the net advantages it offers being set against the outlay entailed —but also in its relation- 5 ship to a comprehensive town improvement plan. If Masterton means to move with the times and to cater effectively, in a period of expansion, for an increasing population within its own boundaries and in the extensive and important district it serves, it is evident that provision must be made for improvement and development works on a fairly considerable scale. The adoption of a comprehensive plan to govern the future development of the town is necessary in order to ensure that development, shall be coherent and economical and also as a guide to the order of priority in which given, works should be undertaken. A plan of this kind would look well ahead. It might be carried completely into effect only over a more or less extended period of years, but from the time it was adopted and enforced no building or other works would be authorised which would conflict with the lines of ultimate development laid down. This is the procedure provided for in town-planning legislation which is in operation in some other countries, but meantime is in a state of suspended animation in New Zealand. So far as the immediate position in Masterton is concerned, there are obviously good grounds for maintaining that individual improvement projects should be considered primarily with reference to a fully comprehensive town improvement plan. This appears, indeed, to be the only way of ensuring that available resources shall be applied to the best advantage in carrying out necessary and desirable improvement works in their ascertained order of importance, and of putting an end to the creation of new problems by haphazard or imperfectly co-ordinated development.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1943, Page 2
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477Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1043. PLANNING FOR TOMORROW. Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1943, Page 2
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