Draft Heritage Plan Change

Our population is growing and we need to set Ōtautahi-Christchurch up for the future. Over the next 30 years, it’s predicted we’ll need over 50,000 more houses in the city to ensure everyone has a place to live – we’re planning for that now.

This means rethinking some of Ōtautahi-Christchurch’s planning rules to allow more housing choice to accommodate the diversity of people who choose to live in our city. We also need to provide greater opportunities for business development in Christchurch.

Additionally, we must make changes to our District Plan to comply with new government direction – the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD) and the Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021. This direction requires us to enable more housing and business development across residential and commercial zones with higher height limits within and around the city centre and suburban centres.

However, not all parts of our city are suitable for the level of increased development that is enabled by the NPS-UD and Enabling Housing Act. Some areas have qualities, known as Qualifying Matters, which mean rules enabling increased development will not apply, or the level we enable increased development to, is limited, and remains subject to resource consent approval.

Ōtautahi-Christchurch and Banks Peninsula have a rich and diverse heritage that is a significant part of our identity. While the Canterbury Earthquakes had an unprecedented impact on our built heritage, the community has indicated that our remaining built heritage is even more precious and valuable. Heritage buildings, items and places provide a real sense of how the city has grown, as well as commemorating our past and present.

To protect Christchurch’s special heritage further, we’re proposing new Residential Heritage Areas (RHAs) be added to the Christchurch District Plan as Qualifying Matters.

This document outlines more detail about the RHAs and other heritage rule changes we’re proposing to the District Plan.

Your feedback is important and will help us further develop the Draft Heritage Plan Change ahead of formal consultation in August 2022.

The Christchurch District Plan provides for the protection of significant historic heritage, while also recognising the impact of the Canterbury Earthquakes, and engineering and financial factors on the ability to retain, restore and continue using heritage items.

Ōtautahi-Christchurch and Banks Peninsula have a rich and diverse heritage that is a significant part of our identity.

Residential Heritage Areas

We’re proposing that 11 new Residential Heritage Areas across the city be protected in the District Plan to recognise Ōtautahi-Christchurch’s special identity.

RHAs are areas in neighbourhoods with buildings and features that are collectively (rather than individually) significant to the city’s heritage and identity, and are worthy of retaining. They have a coherent history which tells us a story about the residential development of Christchurch.

The proposed RHAs are in the following 11 areas: 

• Inner City West
• Chester Street East (Inner City)
• Englefield (Inner City East)
• Piko/Shand streets (Riccarton)
• Heaton Street (Merivale)
• Gosset/Carrington/Jacobs streets (St Albans)
• Wayside Avenue (Burnside)
• Wigram
• MacMillan Avenue (Cashmere)
• Shelley/Forbes streets (Sydenham)
• Lyttelton Township

The areas themselves, and rules we’re proposing for these areas, are new to the District Plan.

We’re proposing that, within the identified RHAs, a resource consent would be required for new buildings, additions or alterations to buildings, fences and walls over 1.5 metres in height, and to demolish or relocate those buildings considered most significant (called “defining” or “contributory” buildings). The Council will assess all development proposals on how they affect the heritage values of the area.

We assessed a large number of other areas of Christchurch against this criteria, but they did not meet the threshold required to be identified as an RHA.

The District Plan already includes Character Area overlays, which are residential neighbourhoods that are distinctive from their wider surroundings and considered to be worthy of retaining. These are also proposed to become Qualifying Matters as part of the Draft Housing and Business Choice Plan Change.

It is proposed that rules for the Character Areas will differ depending on the character values of each area, as well as the District Plan zone in which it is located. The character values that are already being used to assess any development designs submitted to us are proposed to remain the same.

Find out more about Character Areas as part of the Draft Housing and Business Choice Plan Change online(external link)

What if you live in both a Heritage and a Character Area?

If you intend to make changes to your property in both a Character Area and a Residential Heritage Area that requires resource consent in respect to both areas, only one resource consent application will be needed.

As well as introducing RHAs as Qualifying Matters, we’re proposing some additional changes to the Heritage chapter in the District Plan. These include:

• Adding around 65 heritage buildings, items and building interiors to the District Plan’s Schedule of Significant Historic Heritage for protection. These new heritage buildings and items include five buildings near the city centre, some private buildings, halls and cemeteries the Council owns, and 25 baches at Taylors Mistake.
• Correcting and updating mapping and details on the heritage schedule for a number of heritage buildings/ items to accurately show the extent of the area subject to protection. These corrections and updates are being applied for a variety of reasons including to reflect changes to buildings or changes as a result of a land use or subdivision of the property since it was scheduled.
• Wording changes to some heritage policies and a number of changes to heritage rules with strengthening of some rules. The aim is to simplify and clarify provisions, to improve workability for users of the District Plan and the Council, and to improve heritage outcomes.

If you live in or own a building that we’re proposing be protected by the District Plan Heritage Schedule you can make some changes, such as minor repairs and maintenance, without a resource consent.

However, a resource consent is needed for more significant changes, such as building alterations, relocation or demolition, and for new buildings in heritage settings. The Council carefully assesses all proposals for development or changes on how they affect the heritage values of the heritage place.

The NPS-UD criteria for Qualifying Matters includes matters of national importance, nationally significant infrastructure, heritage and public open space. Development restrictions need to generally be confined to a specific location and alternative levels of intensification proposed.

We are able to consider ‘other matters’ as grounds for restricting development. However, this requires a significant amount of evidence, including site-by-site evaluation and full consideration of what housing or business capacity is likely to be lost if we stop or limit more homes being built, and an options analysis for how density can still be achieved.

We propose in our Draft Housing and Business Choice Plan Change that most of the District Plan’s current constraints on greater densities are kept.

New Qualifying Matters (or matters that we are considering as ‘other matters’ currently within the District Plan) include:

• Character Areas
• Schedule of Significant Trees

Features not currently in the District Plan (that we’re proposing to introduce as Qualifying Matters) are:

• Residential Heritage Areas (RHAs)
• Wastewater vacuum sewer system constraint areas
• Areas affected by coastal hazards – there is also a Draft Coastal Hazards Plan Change. Find out more and give feedback online(external link)
• 400v power line setbacks – A five metre setback is proposed to apply from most power lines on many streets. However, the evidence base for this is still being developed and will be available when the plan change is formally notified before 20 August 2022.
• Lyttelton Port’s Hillsborough City Depot surrounds – this seeks to protect the industrial operations of the port depot by restricting the number of houses exposed to noise. However, the evidence base for this is still being developed and will be available when the plan change is formally notified before 20 August 2022.
• Radio Communication Pathway for the Justice and Emergency Services Precinct – there is a Draft Radio Communications Pathway Plan Change. Find out more and give feedback online(external link)

Following notification of the draft plan change before 20 August 2022 and further public consultation, formal submissions will be heard by an Independent Hearings Panel – with hearings expected to take place in 2023.

The public will have an opportunity to make formal submissions on the proposed Residential Heritage Areas, and changes to the heritage rules, heritage schedule and maps during this process.

Decision making process

You can read more about the technical information supporting the proposed changes to the District Plan on our webpage(external link)