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Design Review: Volume 1, Issue 5 (February-March 1949)

New Legislation Opens the Way for Progress — The Town Planning Amendment Act 1948

page 15

New Legislation Opens the Way for Progress
The Town Planning Amendment Act 1948

During the 1948 Parliamentary Session the Town-planning Amendment, Act a measure of great importance for town-planning, was passed. The amending Act, which sets out to correct the more obvious difficulties in the way of progress, was introduced at the request of the Municipal Association.

Violations of Scheme

Another section of the amendment Act gives local authorities wider powers for enforcing finally approved schemes. Previously any person who used a building or land otherwise than in conformity with a town-planning scheme committed an offence and was liable to a fine. The 1948 amendment Act adds to these provisions by giving local authorities power to require the demolition, alteration, or removal of a building or work done in contravention of an approved scheme. If the owner does not carry out the demolition or removal, the local authority can obtain a Supreme Court Order authorizing it to do the work itself, at the owner's expense.

Preparation of Schemes

In the case of a local authority not producing a town-planning scheme, the Minister of Works may, by notice, require it to do so, within a specified time. In default of such action, the Minister is empowered to undertake the preparation of such a scheme himself at the expense of the local authority. This power is important in a locality such as a Metropolitan Area where there are several local authorities exercising jurisdiction over various portions of the area. In such a case the wrong action by any one of these local authorities might prejudice the joint efforts of the others towards co-ordinated development of the Metro-politan Area as a whole.

The Carrying Out of Schemes

One of the major difficulties faced by the local authorities under the town-planning legislation has been the problem of ensuring that areas zoned for particular purposes are, in fact, made available for those purposes. Until the amendment Act was passed last year, a local authority had no means of ensuring this proper utilization of land, but it is now empowered, where the planning scheme has been finally approved and acting with prior approval of the Minister of Works, to purchase or take land for any of the purposes of the scheme. The local authority can now carry out the development of land acquired by it, and may erect buildings for leasing for industrial or commercial purposes. Finance can be arranged by means of a special loan without a poll of ratepayers. Land or buildings acquired under this provision can be leased by private contract or by public tender, and the local authority can sell any land which is required for a private residence of the purchaser.

Compensation

One of the most important features of the amendment Act is a clarification of the exemptions from payment of compensation under town-planning schemes. The amendment Act now makes it clear that no compensation is payable in respect of any provision regulsting the ‘height, design, or external appearance of buildings, or regulating the use of buildings or land by prescribing areas to be used exclusively or principally for specific purposes or classes of purposes’. These latter words, of course, refer to the zoning which is an integral part of every planning scheme, and their effect is that, as in other British countries, the zoning of areas of land for particular defined uses does not give rise to claims for compensation.

The amendment Act has been fully supported by the Municipal and counties Associations and should go far towards ensuring the early preparation and implementation of planning schemes in the urban areas throughout the Dominion. Local authorities now have all the powers necessary to ensure healthy and economic development of the areas under their control.