Mayor’s plan to pay for heritage repair
Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel wants the city to consider paying a targeted rate to help fund the restoration of heritage buildings.
She says her proposal will not increase rates. The Christchurch City Council is struggling to restore all its heritage buildings damaged during the earthquakes, including the nationally-significant Canterbury Provincial Chambers, which were mothballed in 2018 because the council could not find the $204 million needed to fix the them.
The historic buildings, on the corner of Armagh and Durham streets, are the only purpose-built provincial government buildings still in existence in New Zealand and Dalziel wants them repaired.
She also believed the Arts Centre and Canterbury Museum, which both needed money to complete their restorations, could benefit from money generated by the charge. Dalziel’s plan is to take a portion of the uniform annual general charge, which is a fixed charge applied to every ratepayer regardless of their property value, and put it in a dedicated heritage building fund.
‘‘It’s just one of the ideas that I want to float around a different approach. A relatively small annual charge actually creates a signifiant pool of funding over a period of time and that is the same approach I’d like to adopt here.’’
The idea was still being fully developed and had yet to be put in front of councillors or the public, but Dalziel expected that to happen early next year.
She hoped the proposal would receive enough support from councillors to make it into the draft 10-year budget, the city’s long-term plan, which would be publicly consulted on.
Christchurch ratepayers are already paying a special levy of about $6.52 a year to cover the council’s $10m contribution to help reinstate the Christ Church Cathedral. The levy began in 2018 and was for 10 years.
Dalziel said any money put aside for heritage under her plan would not be spent on the Christ Church Cathedral, despite it facing a $51m shortfall.