Greater Christchurch - Urban Development Strategy

The signing and launch of the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy (the Strategy) on 22 June 2007 with special guest, Prime Minister Helen Clark, was a major milestone for Greater Christchurch residents and the Strategy partners: Environment Canterbury, the Christchurch City Council, Selwyn and Waimakariri District Councils and Transit New Zealand.

It ends a three-year-long consultation and development process that started in 2004 due to rising concerns at the lack of collaborative planning and leadership to manage growth across Greater Christchurch in a sustainable and consistent way.

What now?
With the signing of the adopted Strategy by each partner and its launch, the development process gives way to an exciting phase with the partners working together to implement the Strategy.

The purpose of the Strategy is to provide for Greater Christchurch over the next 35 years a clear strategic direction of what we want Christchurch to look like, including:

  • where we want future housing,
  • where we want to develop or enhance social and retail centres of activity,
  • where we want areas of new employment, and
  • how we want to integrate transport networks to service these areas.

The Strategy also provides guidelines for how the Strategic Partners, communities, business, Central Government and non-government agencies can work collaboratively to manage growth in a way that conserves or enhance precious resources and environments, while allowing growth to build vibrant and prosperous towns and suburbs that help support a healthy city.

The Strategy partners’ biggest priorities in implementing the Strategy are the top 20 actions – some of which have already been completed, others within the next few months, and others within the year.

See a list of the actions »

Something to think about...

There are about 350,000 of us now, but by 2041 we will have an extra 120,000 people in the same amount of space sharing the same resources. How do we manage all the changes we need to make so our quality of life does not suffer?

On this website you'll find...

  • Background trends and issues papers
  • The Options Consultation booklet and findings report
  • How to participate
  • The Online discussion group
  • Answers to your questions about the Strategy