Commissioner to decide about Ferrymead development notification

8 December 2004

Christchurch City Council will ask an independent commissioner to decide whether a proposal to develop a 14-storey office building on the Ferrymead Tavern site at 1099 Ferry Road needs to be publicly notified.

Tony Murray, the City Council’s Area Development Officer at the Linwood Service Centre, says there has been considerable public interest in the proposed development and the Council has this week written to those people who had contacted the Council explaining what is now being done.

The Council’s report on the proposal will soon be completed and sent on to the commissioner for a decision about the need for public notification. Mr Murray says he expects that decision before Christmas.

The resource consent application for the site has been on hold for several months because the Council needed more information from the developer about traffic and landscaping issues. Mr Murray says those questions have now been replied to and the application can be processed.

“In making a decision about public notification, the independent commissioner will need to decide whether the effects on the environment from the non-complying aspects are minor or not,” Mr Murray says.

“If they are minor, the expectation is it wouldn’t be notified. The commissioner is only able to consider the effects relating to the impact of traffic on the site and the surrounding roads as these are the sole issues of non-compliance with the City Plan.”

The Ferry Road site is zoned Business 4 (B4). Apart from the traffic issues mentioned above, the proposal before the City Council complies with the zoning.

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