$3m a year to run red zone
Blooming wild flowers, fewer fences and returning wetlands will be seen in the residential red zone after Christchurch City Council takes over management of the land from the Government this week.
The management of hundreds of hectares of flat red-zone land in Southshore, Brooklands and along the Avon River will transfer from Land Information New Zealand (Linz) to the city council on Wednesday.
Thousands of homes were cleared from the land in the wake of the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes after it was deemed too damaged to rebuild on.
Ownership of the land will transfer to the council in phases over the next year. Management of the Port Hills red zone will be transferred in May next year.
Council head of parks Andrew Rutledge said its staff would cut back on mowing parts of the red zone and allow wetlands to reclaim some areas.
‘‘There are opportunities in the upper reaches just to back off the traditional lawn-mowing approach and let nature do some of the work,’’ he said.
‘‘The edges of Bexley and to a degree in some of the Brooklands areas – the wetlands can look after themselves.’’
In other parts of the red zone, the soil will be prepared for planned ecological restoration projects, such as new forests and native planting, by sewing wild flowers.
‘‘When we can, we will manage things in a different way.’’
Rutledge also said some fences would be scrapped in the Avon River corridor. ‘‘We will be removing as many of those barriers as we can to open the land up for people to explore.’’
The council had budgeted
‘‘We will be removing as many of those barriers as we can to open the land up for people to explore.’’
Andrew Rutledge Council head of parks
about $3 million a year for maintenance and security in the red zone and would employ park wardens and maintenance staff to look after the area, Rutledge said.
The $800m, 30-year plan for the residential red zone includes a green spine running along the Avon from the city to the sea, native forests, stormwater catchment areas, cycle paths and new footbridges.
Local leaders want governance of the red zone to be shared.
Evan Smith, of the Avon-Otakaro Network (AvON), a group dedicated to revitalising the red zone, said the council should share governance of the red zone with mana whenua and the local community.
‘‘The council needs to work with others. They are showing signs of being willing to do that.
‘‘They can’t just jump in and take over. There is a temptation, because of 10 years of not having power, that they will just take over. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen.’’
He said a joint body including mana whenua, the council and community members could guide the vision for the red zone.
‘‘There needs to be a level of governance that has the interests of the river corridor at heart.
‘‘They would be guardians of the corridor. They wouldn’t have any political agenda. They would be guardians of the agreed vision for the area.
‘‘It would be people with a passion for that vision who want to execute it properly,’’ Smith explained.
Former councillor Chrissie Williams, who heads a new committee guiding temporary projects in the red zone, backed the idea.
‘‘Establishing a governance group for making decisions around the red zone is one of the most critical things. It needs to be a group with council, mana whenua and the community.’’
Rutledge said that a shared governance body for the red zone was a ‘‘great idea’’.