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Christchurch Urban Development Strategy

New Zealand

Pre-workshop information gathering and growth planning

The Urban Development Strategy management team and strategy partners led this phase to choose a preferred broad growth option following extensive community consultation. This served as an important foundation for the main design workshops.

Background reporting and development of growth options

This phase of work started with an analysis of population dynamics, residential development trends, open space requirements, water quality and aquifer conditions, infrastructure costing, community infrastructure, employment activity, traffic and public transport modelling, existing development capacity, growth scenario modelling and assessment.

This work informed the four broad growth options taken out for consultation. The options varied in terms of:

  • broad locations for new housing (suburban / urban)
  • housing type mix (houses / townhouses / apartments)
  • land required to accommodate the proposed mix.

Consultation on four growth options

The extensive consultation on the four growth options included 22 community meetings, road shows, displays, lectures and special events and took place in two stages:

  • a preliminary round to raise community awareness of the project
  • a detailed consultation to find the preferred growth option.

Information about the four growth options was published on the Urban Development Strategy website and in a consultation booklet. This included a clearly presented assessment for each option covering:

  • the relative cost implications for infrastructure and congestion
  • vehicle emissions, energy use and motoring cost
  • transport choices
  • ability to support easily accessible community facilities
  • water use
  • risk associated with natural disasters
  • the provision of parks / open space.

The most popular growth option in the consultation favoured:

  • intensification - 60 per cent of planned growth in existing urban areas/40 per cent on greenfield land
  • locational split - 75 per cent of growth in Christchurch City/25 per cent distributed between the two rural districts.

Community charter and design framework

The team produced a Community Charter from the consultation feedback. The Charter acted as a statement of intent, introducing the vision, guiding principles and strategic directions, and adopting the overarching principle of sustainable prosperity.

The charter served as a brief for the subsequent main design workshops.