No date for Square
Regenerate Christchurch has no set date for the completion of its strategy to revamp Cathedral Square, six months after it hoped to have a plan ready.
However, Mayor Lianne Dalziel says the planning agency, which is jointly owned by the Crown and the city council, is not behind schedule. Meanwhile, the Central City Business Association’s (CCBA) chairman has asked why work cannot start in parts of the square.
Regenerate hoped to have a Cathedral Square strategy ready by October last year. Chief executive Ivan Iafeta said more time was needed to engage heritage representatives and Nga¯i Tu¯a¯huriri, a North Canterbury Nga¯i Tahu runanga, as it revised the Cathedral Square concept, which formed part of the strategy.
A subsequent report to the council’s finance and performance committee, which noted ‘‘ongoing delays’’, stated Regenerate would likely have its Cathedral Square work ‘‘delivered in March 2018’’.
This week, Iafeta said his organisation had informally briefed the council and Greater Christchurch Regenerate Minister Megan Woods. He could not say when the square work would be completed though.
‘‘They have provided us with some initial feedback. We also need to talk further with other stakeholders,’’ he said. ‘‘We know the council and Crown appreciate the complexities associated with Cathedral Square, but we intend to deliver our advice as soon as possible . . . At this point, we do not have a specific date for when that will happen.’’
CCBA chairman Brendan Chase suggested redevelopment of the square’s public spaces could be done incrementally.
Dalziel said Regenerate Christchurch was ‘‘not behind schedule at all’’ and it would be ‘‘wrong’’ to suggest it was. ‘‘Go back to last year and actually in September you had the Synod [Christ Church Cathedral restoration] decision, and then you had the change of Government and then you had [cathedral] legislation,’’ Dalziel said. ‘‘So part of their consideration has been the information that’s now contained within legislation that wasn’t passed at the time, which is around the reinstatement of the cathedral.’’