Christchurch City Council has agreed to a raft of major new rules which will allow greater business development and more housing choice under the city’s planning rulebook – the District Plan.
The changes come after a special Council meeting yesterday to consider the city’s Housing and Business Choice Plan Change (Plan Change 14), which enables more development to happen at different heights in and around the central city and suburban commercial centres, with the highest development allowed for in and around the central city.
In total, the Council decided on 58 recommendations made by the Independent Hearings Panel (IHP) for the plan change, meaning almost 40 commercial centres and their surrounds will see zoning changes under the District Plan, including Riccarton, Belfast and Linwood.
Mayor, Phil Mauger says the decisions will help pave the way for the district’s future growth and prosperity.
“Yesterday’s decisions are a major milestone for Christchurch and will provide for the growth of the city’s housing and commercial centres in the best locations, to help tackle issues such as climate change and housing choice,” he said.
“That means more houses close to our growing commercial centres – where there’s good access to services, public transport and infrastructure. Living within easy reach of work, school and shops makes getting around easier and helps to reduce transport emissions.
“We’ve also made sure development is restricted in areas where there’s good reason to do so and limited where we need to protect and maintain areas of value such as heritage.
“I’m grateful to everyone in our community who’s played a part in helping the Council reach its decisions to date on Plan Change 14. This process has been a huge undertaking for our city, and a tremendous amount of hard work has gone into making sure we get the best results out of it.”
In yesterday’s meeting the Council was only required to make decisions that related to policies 3 and 4 of the Government’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD), which require greater building development within and around the central city, suburban commercial centres and planned high-frequency and high-capacity public transport routes.
Decisions beyond those two policies do not need to be made until the end of next year, the Council says, meaning it has more time to consider what wider housing intensification will look like for the city under the national Medium-Density Residential Standards (MDRS), which allow up to three dwellings of up to three storeys on a property – without needing to apply for a resource consent – if all other rules have been met.
The Government has previously signalled it intends to make the MDRS optional for councils next year.
The Council also referred 20 decisions to the Minister for RMA Reform, who must now decide between the alternative recommendations put forward by the Council and the IHP’s original recommendations.
The Minister’s decisions, which are expected early next year, will include consideration of the Council’s alternative recommendation to apply a special city-wide restriction, called a qualifying matter, to allow greater sunlight access for new residential developments under the MDRS.
Other alternative recommendations are aimed at amending the degree of intensification around Riccarton, Hornby, Peer Street and Linwood, while also seeking to apply the Riccarton Bush Interface Area.
A number of heritage and character listings were also rejected through the Council’s alternative recommendations to the Minister, including Antonio Hall, Daresbury House, and the Piko Heritage and Character Area.
The Council’s Plan Change 14 decisions that accepted an IHP recommendation will effectively replace existing District Plan standards once they are formally notified, which is expected by 12 December, with all the alternative recommendations having legal effect from this date. This means that consents against the new provisions can be granted from this date.
The Council has published an online interactive map on its Plan Change 14 webpage to allow residents to see how the changes apply.
Key decisions on Plan Change 14
Key commercial centre zones decided on:
- 32m (about 10 storeys) for Riccarton and Papanui
- 22m or 20m (about 6 storeys) for *Hornby, *Linwood, Shirley, Belfast, North Halswell, Merivale, Sydenham, Church Corner, and Merivale (those with an asterisk are subject to a Councillor alternative recommendation)
- 14m (about 3 to 4 storeys) enabled for all other urban commercial centres, except Lyttelton, which is 12m.
High-Density Residential Zone to apply surrounding Riccarton, Papanui, Hornby*, Linwood*, Shirely, Belfast, Merivale, Sydenham, Church Corner and the City Centre (those with an asterisk have an alternative recommendation to limit building height to 12m and a reduced walking catchment):
- Enables building heights of 14m, with heights of 22m within the Four Avenues or 39m within the Central City Residential Precinct
- Exemption for recession planes for taller buildings or comprehensively developed sites
- More lenient controls for site coverage and landscaping
- Any development of 4 or more units requires resource consent with urban design input
- Development of all school, visitor accommodation, hospital or tertiary education sites contained within, or adjacent to, the zone are enabled to a level consistent with the surrounding residential zone.
Medium-Density Residential Zone to apply within a 200m walking catchment of about 30 other Local Centres (for example, Barrington, St Martins, Parklands, Wigram, etc):
- Enables buildings of 11m, plus 1m for roof elevation
- Up to 50 per cent site coverage
- Street-facing glazing requirements
- Any development of 4 or more units requires resource consent with urban design input
- The Local Centre Intensification Precinct (subject to Councillor alternative recommendation) provides for more lenient recession plane controls for comprehensively designed developments (known as Perimeter Blocks)
- Development of school, visitor accommodation, hospital or tertiary education sites contained within, or adjacent to, the zone are enabled to a level consistent with the surrounding residential zone.
The Council decided on the following key qualifying matters and other matters:
- To remove the Residential Heritage Areas for Inner City West, Chester Street East, Heaton, Lyttelton, and Piko/Shand – however, these are still in effect due to Plan Change 13, which is subject to a future decision
- Remove Residential Character areas for Beverley, Ranfurly and Clifton
- Remove the Central City Heritage Interface, Cathedral Square Interface and Victoria Street Height
- Apply the Radiocommunications Pathways from the central city Justice Precinct
- Apply the Industrial Interface within the High- and Medium-density residential areas decided on
- Remove the financial contributions on tree canopy cover, but investigate a separate plan change to proceed with this
- Apply the Riccarton Bush Interface Area qualifying matter (subject to Councillor alternative recommendation)
- Apply the Sunlight Access Qualifying Matter (subject to Councillor alternative recommendation)
- Apply the City Spine Qualifying Matter, retaining all operative road setbacks along the key public transport corridor of Belfast-Papanui-City Centre-Riccarton-Hornby (subject to Councillor alternative recommendation)
- 25 Deans Avene (former Stock Yards site) rezoned to Mixed Use Zone, with a specific height limit of 36m (subject to Councillor alternative recommendation).
- Remove the requirement for notifying Christchurch International Airport Limited (CIAL) for developments within the 50 dB noise contour (including Remodelled), giving the Council discretion to notify CIAL on a case-by-case basis, and retain the requirement for resource consent for three or more residential units.
