Housing  |  3 Sep 2025

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Christchurch City Council will ask the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform for approval to opt out of further housing intensification decisions yet to be made under its Housing and Business Choice Plan Change (Plan Change 14).

The Council agreed at its meeting today to seek approval from Minister Chris Bishop to withdraw the remaining parts of Plan Change 14 – related to applying national Medium-Density Residential Standards (MDRS) – ahead of the Government’s 12 December deadline. 

In making its decision, the Council approved some of the plan change’s Independent Hearings Panel (IHP) recommendations for further housing intensification so that it could meet the legally required housing capacity threshold to apply to the Minister for a withdrawal. 

The IHP recommendations approved today will provide more medium-density housing zoning around the intensification areas already enabled as part of the Council’s December 2024 decisions on Plan Change 14, including the city centre, Church Corner, Riccarton, Hornby, Linwood, Shirley, Merivale, Edgeware, and Papanui.  

Mayor Phil Mauger says today’s decision is about putting the city on a better path for the future. 

“MDRS across all our residential areas was never the best fit for Christchurch, and, because of this, we’ve worked hard over the past few years on a plan change process that’s had to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation. 

“Up until recently, opting out of MDRS wasn’t even an option – but now it is, and we’ve voted as a council to go down that path rather than carry on with something that wasn’t right for us from the get-go. 

“The decisions we’ve made today, which build on the ones we made last year, will help set our city up for the future, ensuring we have more than enough housing capacity built into our planning rulebook for the next few decades.  

“Our population is growing, which is an excellent problem to have, but it means we need to plan wisely for more houses in the right places – close to our growing commercial centres, where there’s good access to services, public transport networks, and infrastructure. 

“I’m confident that today’s decisions achieve all of that and, importantly, put us in a solid position to request an opt-out from MDRS’s one-size-fits-all approach to housing intensification.” 

MDRS was originally proposed to apply across all residential areas of urban Christchurch, but the recent opt-out process introduced to the Resource Management Act now allows the Council to request to withdraw the remainder of Plan Change 14, meaning no further decisions on it would be needed. 

Under MDRS, up to three dwellings of up to three storeys can be developed on a property, without needing to apply for a resource consent, if all other rules have been met.   

To apply to withdraw the remainder of Plan Change 14 before the Government’s 12 December deadline on decision-making, the Council is required to zone land for enough commercially viable housing to meet 30 years of expected “high growth” demand, as projected by Statistics New Zealand, with a further 20 per cent added to that figure as a buffer. In total, some 65,600 commercially viable houses need to be enabled in Christchurch. 

The Council’s decision today means it can now apply to opt out of MDRS for the balance of areas not decided while still ensuring significant opportunities for housing investment. 

In addition to approving nearly all the recommendations tabled today, the Council agreed to ask the Minister for a way to revisit previous decisions on the city centre walking catchment and Sydenham Mixed Use Zone, to enable more housing density around the central city without undertaking a new plan change. 

All of today’s Plan Change 14 decisions now take immediate effect and will be fully operative in the District Plan once the Council publishes a public notice. 

The Council will also publish an interactive map on its Plan Change 14 webpage, to reflect today's decisions, so people can see how the changes will apply.