Council approves first regeneration plan

A draft Regeneration Plan which provides for a pocket of undeveloped land in Papanui/St Albans to be re-zoned for housing will be submitted by Christchurch City Council to Regenerate Christchurch.

Some of the residual rural land in Cranford St could be rezoned for residential purposes.

The draft Cranford Regeneration Plan is the first prepared by Council under new legislation designed to support regeneration. It focuses on the improvement of about 125 hectares of land on the western side of the upper end of Cranford Street.

A large part of that area is made up of the Cranford Basin – a major natural ponding and storm-water management area that is critical to reducing the flood risk.

The Basin is to be developed into a multi-purpose wetland and trial plantings including kahikatea have already begun.

However, the draft plan shows around 38 hectares of land outside the designated storm-water basin is considered by the Council to be suitable for residential development of varying densities.

“This draft Plan will assist in the City’s regeneration and urban renewal by enabling housing to be located close to existing shopping, other facilities and key transport routes, and will make more efficient use of land that is no longer suited for rural production,” Deputy Mayor Andrew Turner said.

Feedback on the draft Cranford Regeneration Plan was sought earlier this year from the Council’s statutory partners and from the public.

Ngāi Tūāhuriri and Ngāi Tahu expressed concern about the effects of storm-water discharges on Waikākāriki/Horseshoe Lake.

The draft Plan was subsequently amended to specify a commitment to continue to work with them to investigate alternative storm-water discharge locations.

Around 120 comments were received from the public on the draft Plan. The majority of those comments supported the Plan but stressed the need;

• to put an upper limit on the scale of development to minimise the effects of traffic on the local network,
• for stringent geotechnical assessments both before the land is zoned and at the subdivision stage.

Cr Turner said the Council had listened to these concerns and had put an upper limit on the scale of development to minimise the effects of traffic on the local network.

“We know from the geotechnical work that suitable types of development are appropriate for this land. It’s about ensuring that disturbance to the natural conditions in and around the proposed area is kept to a minimum,” Cr Turner said.

At today’s Council meeting, Councillors voted to submit the draft Plan to Regenerate Christchurch.

Regenerate Christchurch must, in turn, submit the draft to the Minister supporting Greater Christchurch Regeneration, along with a recommendation on whether or not the Minister should approve it.