Derelict heritage buildings lose protections, CBD height limits removed
Thursday, 19 September 2024
It has never been easier to build in central Christchurch.
Effective immediately, the city council has lifted barriers to intensification and stripped multiple properties of its heritage protections.
The changes made at the full council meeting on Wednesday were part of plan change 14, which broadly seeks to make it easier to develop taller and more densely packed residential and commercial buildings across the city.
The Wednesday decision only impacts a few blocks of central Christchurch from Cathedral Square, but excludes some areas like New Regent St. The council will consider a much larger suite of proposed planning rule changes across the city in December.
For now, within the core of the CBD, developers no longer need to apply for resource consent to build under 28m.
There is no longer a building height limit, though anything over 45m will be approved at the council’s discretion.
Councillors also agreed to strip the heritage protection from multiple deteriorating properties across the city, two of which already have developers lined up to turn it into accommodation.
It includes the old Harley Chambers on Cambridge Tce, whose owners have sought permission to demolish and replace it with an 11-storey hotel.
The former medical and dental facility has been on council’s ‘Dirty 30’ list of sites considered a barrier to Christchurch’s rebuild, but it was bought by local developers in 2023.
The new owners, Michael Doig and Jonathan Lyttle, envision a 200-room hotel designed with art deco and Chicago influences.
“It’s great news, we’re very happy,” he said.
The blue cottage on Gloucester St, owned by Carter Group, can now also be a contender for demolition.
The 150-year-old cottage has been deteriorating due to lack of maintenance and exposure to intruders and vandalism, according to a report commissioned by the group.
It sits on a mostly empty half-hectare block of prime central city land, but Philip Carter, head of Carter Group, told the council in April he’d rather abandon the whole site than save the cottage, which has a repair estimate of about $1.6 million.
The company bought the site for $10.7m in 2021, and has previously said it wants to turn it into 54 terraced homes.
St James Church on Riccarton Rd - owned by Church Property Trustees, on behalf of the Anglican diocese of Christchurch - has also lost its heritage protection.
Bishop Peter Carrell said he was pleased with the news. He previously said the diocese has wanted to sell the site for years, but did not say on Wednesday if there were interested parties lined up.
The cost of repairing the earthquake damaged church is estimated at $5m, but the rateable value of the site is only $3.7m.
An earthquake damaged stone cottage on 471 Ferry Rd, built in the 1860s and formerly part of the wider Portstone Nursery site, has also lost its protection.
According to a council submission to the hearings panel (which ultimately recommended to remove protections), it wasn’t the building’s owner, but a neighbour, who wanted the cottage delisted.
The building was home to Dizzy Lizzy’s catering from 1988 until the Canterbury earthquakes. Building owner Lizzy Thompson wanted to repair it, according to the council submission, but couldn’t afford to.
A 2023 estimate put the repair cost at $705,000, excluding GST, but the capital value of the property was only $230,000.