Central living plan struggling
A plan to get 20,000 people living in central Christchurch is behind and one city councillor says it needs ‘‘significant support’’.
Project 8011, a council-run programme aimed at increasing the central city’s residential population to 20,000 by 2028, has a ‘‘needs support’’ designation by council staff, which councillor James Gough thought was ‘‘being kind’’. The project’s plights include a report about incentives for home buyers that is nearly six months overdue.
Council head of urban regeneration Carolyn Ingles confirmed Project 8011’s plans to provide an advice service to new developers and to market the central city needed support too.
Gough, who chairs the newly formed Central City Momentum Working Group, said residential development in the city was tracking poorly and needed help.
‘‘If the central city fails, the wider Christchurch regeneration ultimately fails,’’ he said.
Gough wanted a ‘‘clear, linear and transparent’’ approach to Project 8011; figure out its costs, allocate a budget and roll it out, he said. ‘‘I honestly believe this is probably singly the biggest thing the council can effect over the coming few years,’’ Gough said.
Ingles said the ‘‘needs support’’ designation for Project 8011 meant an issue ‘‘has been identified and that corrective action is being considered’’. She said the project had fallen behind due to ‘‘resourcing capacity constraints, council funding decisions, and technical issues’’.
Central city resident Sandra Campbell, who moved into the east frame at the end of last year, said living in the city was ‘‘brilliant’’ as well as ‘‘nice and compact’’.
Perks included cutting down on expenses by walking everywhere and being able to see what was happening in the city, she said.
‘‘I spend most of my life at work but because I walk through the city to get home, I get to feel like I am still connected to it all,’’ she said.
Campbell thought achieving
20,000 residents would ‘‘bring the city back to life’’.
Harcourts Gold real estate agent Mark O’Loughlin said
20,000 was a ‘‘hard target’’. To achieve it, he thought the council would need to create a planning group specialised in inner city development.
This service was within the framework of Project 8011 but
remained behind target.
O’Loughlin said the city would need about 9000 dwellings to achieve 20,000 residents but there were only 3500 to 4000 apartments in Christchurch right now.
The project has had some issues since it was announced in August 2018.
A package of proposed incentives should have been presented to the council at the end of July last year but council staff said at the time they required ‘‘further specialist advice on technical, economic, legal and financial matters’’.
That advice was still being a sought. The incentives package being considered included a rates remission and an open-school zone.
One of Project 8011’s other subprojects, an online portal with information for developers, was supposed to be established by
September but did not go live until November.
Councillors also refused to fund a one-year trial of an advice service that would have facilitated discussions with residential developers about building in the central city.
In October last year, Stuff reported that 37 of the 172 homes built by Fletchers in the east frame development had been sold, which aroused concern from Treasury.
A Fletchers spokesperson said this week 60 homes had now been sold.
A council survey conducted last year found 12 per cent of respondents would consider moving to the central city in the next one to two years.
At the latest check, Trade Me Property listed 105 homes for sale in Christchurch’s city centre and 175 available to rent.