Anderton has plans for Henderson land | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

MAYORAL HOPEFUL Jim Anderton
says a plan for each of the council-
purchased Dave Henderson proper
ties will be put in place by March
next year if he is elected _ and it
may involve selling them off.

He said he will appoint a panel of
private sector experts to study
''sensible ways'' to develop the five
parcels bought from the developer in
a controversial $17 million bail-out
deal, as well as other vacant blocks
of land in the central city.

And he is not ruling out the possi
bility of selling them off if there is a
market for it.

Mr Henderson, who has rights to
buy back the properties, faces his
first deadline this month for part of
the former Para Rubber retail site in
Manchester St.

 

 

His next deadline involves the
site he bought for his ambitious $21
million Sydenham Square mixed
apartment and office development in
Colombo St.

The option to repurchase that
block expires in December.

Mr Anderton said ratepayers
were justifiably concerned at how
the city council would dispose of the
empty Henderson properties he
describes as an ''eyesore''.

''This land was overpriced and
now lies dormant and largely
untenanted,'' he said.

Ironically, Sydenham Square is
exactly the type of development that
was needed to rejuvenate the city,
he said. The ''most important issue''
for the central city was to increase
the number of people living there
and ''affordable housing'' would pro
vide the answer, he said.

 

 

The policy announcement comes
days after Mr Anderton said the
huge empty Turners and Growers
'bomb site' between Lichfield St,
Madras St, Tuam St and Barbadoes
St, which is earmarked for a winery,
should be used for housing instead.

He wanted to see an ''asset regis
ter'' of all council-owned property.

He didn't believe developers saw
the recession as a major factor in
their reticence to start new projects,
but were constrained more by
obstacles such as the council's
required up-front development levy
and a costly resource consent pro
cess.

''When I speak to the people who
own these sites, they say 'we could
get cracking tomorrow if we had the
right set of combinations'.

''That's what I'm intending to do.''

 

 

 

His rival and incumbent Mayor
Bob Parker said the previous
council's ''mistake'' on the
Turners and Growers site was

 

failing to impose a time limit on
developers.

However, Mr Parker said the
council had just negotiated a
proposal that could result in a
mixed use development under

 

way there before the end of the
year.

''It is council's view that the
proposal be presented to the
incoming council in November.''

He said the council was

 

working ''with all tertiary
institutions in the city'' to
develop a proposal for a mixed
residential/student
accommodation village on two of
the council owned sites.