26 April 2005

Community meetings set to start on Greater Christchurch Urban Development

Communities throughout Greater Christchurch – from Rangiora to Diamond Harbour, and Bishopdale to Aranui - will get the chance to participate in the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy during community meetings held all of May.

Four options are being considered by the Christchurch local bodies to plan for population growth together in the Greater Christchurch area. Although future growth is occurring mainly in Christchurch city, its impact with traffic congestion, the continued spread of housing development over productive rural land, and risk to drinking water, has massive impacts on outlying areas of Christchurch.

Because of this, the Christchurch City Council, Environment Canterbury (Canterbury Regional District Council), Waimakariri, Selwyn, and Banks Peninsula district councils, and Transit New Zealand, have joined forces to seek more effective and efficient long-term solutions together. They hope to draft a strategy, but are seeking guidance from their communities.

“The mayors and chairs of the City and surrounding local bodies have raised issues they believed were key to their communities, and have made a commitment to the UDS process. Now it’s time for the people of those same communities to get involved and make sure their voices are heard,” says the chairman of the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy, Bob Parker, who is also Banks Peninsula mayor.

Mr Parker said that 300 people turned out to the Christchurch Art Gallery to hear the mayors talk last Tuesday about each area’s issues when planning for future growth, and about the problems Greater Auckland now faced because it had not planned enough. Communities needed to have their say on what they envisaged for Christchurch.

“The issues will vary from area to area in Greater Christchurch and that’s why it’s important that as many people as possible take part in this consultation. The aim is for people to hear about the four options being considered for growth and then feed back responses to those ideas before consultation closes on 3 June. “Ideally, we’d like you to fill out a feedback form at the meetings – whether you agree with any one of the options, or whether you want a mix of solutions – all input is important for the future of your communities and ultimately the city,” Mr Parker says.

ENDS

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