Christchurch faces rezoning changes to avoid widespread suburban intensification

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

More areas of Christchurch will need to be rezoned this year to allow for greater housing density if the city is to prevent widespread intensification of the suburbs.

Christchurch City Council must prove to the Government it has enough capacity for 65,600 commercially feasible homes to be built if it wants to stop plans that would allow three, three-storey homes to be built per section in the suburbs without the need for resource consent.

The city is about 20% short of that total, according to council staff.

The council has until December 12 to implement the remainder of the Government-initiated housing intensification plan (plan change 14, or PC14), unless it gets ministerial approval to opt out by proving it has housing capacity to meet a 30-year high growth demand, plus 20%.

New density and height rules have already been approved within the four avenues and the commercial centres of some suburbs, including Papanui, Hornby and Linwood, but this has not been enough to reach the 65,600 figure.

The council must now decide how to reach that number, and councillors were presented with four options at a briefing on Tuesday.

Options could allow increased density within 800m of core bus routes, expand the commercial centre boundaries, intensify housing along key transport corridors, or increase housing inside the Orbiter bus route.

Staff were looking for a steer from councillors as to which option to progress, but councillors wanted to discuss the issue further before giving any direction. The issue will be discussed at further sessions this month and next.

Council staff said they were not yet sure of the exact number of commercially feasible homes allowed within the existing planning rules, but it was about 20% short of the 65,600 needed.

To be counted within that figure, properties had to be commercially viable, and that viability often changed depending on building costs and property prices.

Mayor Phil Mauger pointed to some parts of the city that could be developed into housing, including the Apollo Projects Stadium in Addington and Princess Margaret Hospital. But these could not be counted toward the total because they were not yet zoned as residential.

Last year, a recommendation by councillor Sara Templeton to rezone blocks of industrial Sydenham between Moorhouse Ave and Brougham St to mixed use failed. If it had been approved, it would have lessened the amount of intensification needed in residential suburbs.

After Tuesday’s briefing, Templeton said it was not clear how many homes the rezoning of Sydenham would have contributed to the total, but it would have helped.

Council head of planning and consents Mark Stevenson said the housing capacity in that area was never modelled as part of the PC14 evidence.

However, its evidence showed that four and six-storey residential developments were not commercially feasible outside of the four avenues.

The council was not able to add Sydenham in now, because a decision had already been made not to.

Cr Andrei Moore said the council should be writing to Housing Minister Chris Bishop to request a late amendment to the legislation to enable housing in the Sydenham area.

“Everyone has asked us to focus on intensification around the central city and in many ways we’re going to end up doing the opposite.”

However, it could be allowed under the Government’s Going for Housing Growth programme, which was proposed as part of sweeping changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA), and would allow buildings at least six storeys high 1.2km to 1.5km from the central city.

Stevenson said enabling residential development in the Sydenham area would require a change to the RMA and potentially other acts, which was unlikely considering the Government’s agenda and the timeframe to complete it.