District Plan  |  7 Apr 2021

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Changes are being proposed to Christchurch City Council planning rules to help enable Māori to build on land they own in the Papakāinga/Kāinga Nohoanga zone.

Plan Change 8 seeks to significantly reduce the setbacks required for building on Māori land in the zone, and increase the maximum permitted site coverage of buildings from 35 percent to 50 percent. The Papakāinga/Kāinga Nohoanga zone is in five different locations; Rapaki, Koukourārata (Port Levy), Wairewa (Little River), Ōnuku and Ōpukutahi.

Christchurch City Council Head of Planning and Strategic Transport David Griffiths says the current building setbacks from internal and road boundaries in the zone leave little or no buildable area on many of the smaller sites, meaning resource consent is nearly always required to build.

“The objective of the zone is to facilitate Ngai Tahu whanau use and development of Māori land and we feel these amendments will help meet that aim.”

 Other changes proposed include extending the definition of Māori land to include General land that meets certain criteria, for the purposes of the Papakāinga/Kāinga Nohoanga zone only, and  providing a more generous earthworks allowance.

 The proposed changes are for Māori land only. Rules for non- Māori land in the zone will remain the same as they are currently.

 Mr Griffiths says Māori land is a finite resource that is subject to more constraints than non- Māori land, but many of these are outside of the Council’s control.

 “However, we want to remove as many planning constraints as we can from the District Plan to help Māori land be used and developed as was originally intended when Maori Reserves were first established.”

 Formal feedback is welcome on the plan change during the consultation period starting 14 April 2021 and finishing 13 May 2021.

 More information about the proposed plan change can be found online or at any of the Council’s service centres or libraries.