Q. What is a ‘Character Area’ according to the Christchurch City Council?
A. Character Areas (previously known as Special Amenity Areas or SAMs) are areas in residential neighbourhoods that are distinctive from their surroundings and are considered to have a character worthy of retention.
The Christchurch District Plan includes character area overlays in 15 Christchurch locations.
https://ccc.govt.nz/consents-and-licences/resource-consents/resource-consent-activities/residential-and-housing/character-areas
‘The Management of Suburban Amenity Values in Christchurch City’, July 1997
Suburban Amenity Christchurch Report
– Page 20
The amenity values and garden city design of Christchurch are to a large extent the result of the vision shown by the city fathers in designing and providing the city’s green spaces over 100 years ago.
City heritage is expressed through the city’s inherited assets including buildings, places, objects, trees, natural features, archaeological sites, and sites of significance to tangata whenua.
– Page 21
Special Amenity Areas
Special Amenity Areas (SAMs) have been identified in Living Zones as areas with special aspects or characteristics that contribute to the pleasantness of an area including the scale, age and style of buildings, the lack of intrusions or the level of intactness, the combination of streetscape and vegetation, and the intimacy of the street scene.
Christchurch Suburban Character Areas Assessment, January 2015
Assessment Report
– 7 Character Areas 10 and 10a: Slater / Poulton and Dudley Assessment
Pages 39 – 44
– 18 Character Area 37: Emmett Street Assessment
Pages 111 – 117
18.1 Area Description
Character Area 37 is located in Mairehau, north of Shirley Road and west of Marshland Road to the north-east of the central city.
Character Area 37 comprises the length of Emmett Street.
The area has been identified as a Character Area due to the consistent style and era of dwellings (primarily consisting of state housing of the 1940s and 1950s), consistently generous street setbacks, low or no fencing (enabling good visual connectivity between dwellings and the street), well-landscaped gardens and a relatively narrow, high-amenity streetscape. The street pattern is a curvilinear street, which wraps around McFarlane Park.
18.2 Streetscape Elements
The underlying topography of the site is flat, with no notable long or short views. This area has significant streetscape quality, with a street width of approximately 20m and wide grass berms (approximately 3m) on either side of the carriageway (located between the carriageway and the footpath) within which mature street trees are planted (spaced at approximately 15m down the length of the street).
These street trees create a canopy over the street and this in conjunction with the grass berms, large front yard setbacks and small scale of dwellings give the street a spacious yet intimate character & provide a pleasant pedestrian environment.
18.4 Conclusion
The continuity and coherence of Character Area 37 – comprising of the streetscape and site character elements (landscape and built form) is consistent.
This Character Area has approximately 92% of sites that are classified as either primary or contributory.
– Page 121
Character Area 37: Emmett Street
Recommendations: It is recommended that Character Area 37 – Emmett Street, is retained as a Character Area in its entirety (as illustrated in the Site Classification and Boundary Map, Appendix 16).
‘The Proposed Christchurch Replacement District Plan’, 2 May 2015
Character Areas Info Sheet
– Christchurch City Character Areas (Formerly ‘Special Amenity Areas’)
Character Areas, which used to be known as special amenity areas (or SAMs) will be changed as a result of proposals in stage two of the district plan review.
– Character Areas are residential parts of the city that contain a set of qualities (eg building style/type/age) that make the area distinctive and of value to the district.
– There will be two types of Character Areas:
Category 1 Character Areas have the highest character value.
Category 2 Character Areas have moderate character value and the rules mainly seek to retain the streetscape character between the house and the street boundary.
– CA 11: Dudley, SAM 10 (Slater/Poulton), Category 1, Restricted Discretionary Activity – rule 14.2.2.3.22 RD22
– CA 32: Emmett SAM 37 (Emmett Street), Category 1, Restricted Discretionary Activity – rule 14.2.2.3.22 RD22
Christchurch Suburban Residential Character Areas, July 2015
Classification & Boundary Maps for Category 1 Character Areas
– Page 6
Appendix 5 – Character Areas 10 and 10a: Site Classification and Boundary Map (Dudley)
– Page 22
Appendix 16 – Character Area 37: Site Classification and Boundary Map (Emmett)
Partial Assessment of Benefits and Costs of Character Areas, 18 August 2015
Assessment Report
– Page 3
1.3 Engaged by the Christchurch City Council (Council) to provide
evidence on the assessment of the costs and benefits of the Character Area rules in the Residential Proposal of the proposed Replacement District Plan (pRDP).
– Page 4
3.1 The analysis undertaken in the Report comprises an objective assessment of the benefits of Character Areas (hedonic valuation), and subjective assessment of the benefits and costs of the Character Areas (survey).
– Page 31
4.2 Sample Method
Letters were sent by the Christchurch City Council (CCC) on 9 July 2015 to all households within the Character Area, excluding properties belonging to Housing New Zealand, Orion and the Council.
The letter noted that the household was within a Character area, and requested that they fill out the survey with the web link directing them to the site.
4.3 Response
The survey received 430 responses, of which 70 were discarded as incomplete. A further 3 were removed because they responded that they were not within any of the listed character areas.
Of the 357 completed responses 110 came from the Beckenham Loop area, and a further 73 from Dudley.
These two areas therefore contribute strongly to the overall responses, but analysis of the sample shows that the sample is reasonably representative.
These two largest groups (Dudley and Beckenham Loop) are represented in the sample at approximately the same proportion as their representation in the overall character area.
– Page 32
Figure 3: Survey sample representation by Character Area designation
– Page 33
Table 3: Response count and proportion by character area
CA 32 – Emmett (Emmett Street)
Response Count = 13, Response Proportion = 3.6%, Proportion of properties in total = 7%
[See 4.2 “excluding properties belonging to Housing New Zealand”, this area of Shirley is predominately Housing New Zealand.]
– Page 35
Figure 5: Question 3 – important aspects of character areas (proportion of respondents)
‘Street Trees’ received over 70%, 2nd to ‘Age and style of houses’
– Page 52
Table 5: Comparative data for Question 3 – Aspects of character areas
Independent Hearings Panel, 18th August 2015
Urban Design – Character Areas, Overlays and the Residential Small Settlement Zone Built Forms Standards
– Page 9
Matters of agreement
(c) The deletion of CA32 Emmett Street
– Page 26
Submission #2378 (Crown)
7.3 In addition to the Category 2 Character Areas, the Crown identifies Category 1 Character Areas with a high rate of Housing New Zealand Corporation property ownership. These are CA32 Emmett, CA29 Auburn and CA7 Piko.
7.4 While distinctly different from each other, each of the areas identified by the Crown reflects a highly intact street layout, subdivision pattern, site and building layouts and landscape qualities that are highly representative of the eras in which they were established.
7.5 Of these areas, CA 32 Emmett offers the most substantial gain in housing density under the Comprehensive Housing Redevelopment Mechanism (CHRM), particularly in conjunction with the wider Shirley area which has been the subject of a master plan process for redevelopment undertaken by Housing New Zealand Corporation in consultation with Council.
While I support the retention of all three Character Areas, from a resource management perspective and taking into account the Ministers’ SOE, with my knowledge of potential residential density gains of Emmett Street within the wider context of Shirley, I consider that the area provides significant benefit in respect to the potential increase in residential unit numbers, if redeveloped comprehensively. As such, I do not oppose the deletion of CA 32 Emmett Street.
‘Council moves to protect special areas from new housing rules’, 26 Nov 2021
https://www.newsline.ccc.govt.nz/news/story/council-moves-to-protect-special-areas-from-new-housing-rules
Christchurch City Council is assessing which areas of the city would be unsuitable to enable more housing when the government’s new rules are applied.
The National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD) and the recently-announced Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and other matters) Amendment Bill will make it easier for new housing to be built in cities around the country as local Councils will have less ability to request resource consents for proposed developments.
However, Councils will be able manage housing development in areas they deem unsuitable if features or areas are listed in the Christchurch District Plan as ‘qualifying matters’.
Some qualifying matters have already been listed in the NPS-UD, such as outstanding natural features and landscapes, natural hazards and historic heritage. Although the Council can include other matters as qualifying matters, the NPS-UD limit this to matters that are site-specific, supported by evidence, and where the costs and broader impacts of imposing these limits are assessed.
‘Character areas protected from housing intensification rules’, 13 Apr 2022
https://www.newsline.ccc.govt.nz/environment/story/character-areas-protected-from-housing-intensification-rules
Residential areas of Christchurch with special character value are being protected from new housing intensification rules.
Christchurch City Council has begun consulting with the public on its Draft Housing and Business Choice Plan Change, which will enable medium density housing development to occur in most residential parts of the city without the need for resource consent.
Residential areas can only be exempted from those rules if Councils can provide evidence that they are unsuitable for the amount of increased housing enabled by the legislation, referred to in the legislation as ‘Qualifying Matters’.
“We have taken the position in our Draft Housing and Business Choice Plan Change that most of the 15 Character Area overlays in the current Christchurch District Plan meet the threshold to become Qualifying Matters,” says Council Head of Planning and Consents John Higgins.
“We are proposing that these areas should be treated differently than other residential areas in the city, meaning the amount of intensification allowed should be reduced,” Mr Higgins says.
Character Areas are identified in the District Plan as areas in residential neighbourhoods that are distinctive from their wider surroundings and are considered to be worthy of retaining.
They were last reviewed in 2015, on the basis that at least 80 percent of the properties in the area contributed to the character values that made it special. [The Emmett Character Area has approximately 92% of sites that are classified as either primary or contributory].
“Residential character is created from the way that different physical elements of our neighbourhoods come together,” explains Mr Higgins.
“This might include the combination of a landscape setting, such as a riverside esplanade or an avenue of trees, or with a grouping of properties with buildings of the same era, with consistent architecture and scale. [Emmett Street]
These character areas can make neighbourhoods feel quite special and we want to protect them as much as we can,” Mr Higgins says.
Examples of remaining character areas include Dudley in Richmond.
Land Use Recovery Plan, April 2024
Appendix 2: Amendments to the Christchurch City Plan
Amendment 1B: Community Housing Redevelopment Mechanism (CHRM)
– Page 18
Community Housing Unit: means a residential unit supplied by Christchurch City Council, Housing New Zealand or a Registered Community Housing provider (under Part 10 of the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act, 1992) and which is offered for rental as Social Housing (as defined at Section 2 of the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act, 1992).
Community Housing Redevelopment Mechanism, Map 8 Shirley
– Page 26
Map 8 Shirley, extent of the proposed CHRM Area.
Christchurch City Council Residential Intensification, 2025
https://ccc.govt.nz/consents-and-licences/resource-consents/resource-consent-activities/residential-and-housing/residential-intensification
– Community Housing Redevelopment Mechanism
Community houses are rental social housing units supplied by Christchurch City Council, Housing New Zealand Corporation, a not-for-profit housing organisation, or a Registered Community Housing provider.
– What is the Community Housing Redevelopment Mechanism?
The Community Housing Redevelopment Mechanism (CHRM) is a set of rules in the District Plan that apply to specific areas of Christchurch that contain clusters of social or community housing. The rules enable medium density redevelopment to provide for better use of land and a wider range of housing types to suit different kinds of households (e.g. town houses and terrace houses).
It was ironic to find during my research, that these ‘Character Areas’ on either side of Shirley Road have received different fates based on their ‘original’ social housing status & ‘current’ community housing status, by being excluded due to the Community Housing Redevelopment Mechanism (CHRM) rules.
See: https://www.10shirleyroad.org.nz/site-history/
Chancellor Street Heritage Houses
“New Zealand Premier ‘King’ Dick Seddon’s Liberal Government (1893-1906) wanted architectural variety, rather than uniformity, in the design of the workers’ dwellings. Local architects submitted entries to design competitions held throughout New Zealand and the dwellings were built by local contractors.”
“The Chancellor Street houses also form part of New Zealand’s heritage of state housing generally. The setting is the original 1914 rectangular land parcel with a small garden between the house and the roadway and a larger open space at the rear.”
Dudley Character Area
“In Christchurch, some of these homes were designed by some prominent local architects including Hurst Segar, Cecil Wood, Barlow and England.
Three pockets of these homes were built in Christchurch in 1918 to 1920, one being in Chancellor Street. Of the three pockets of these homes built in Christchurch, little remains of the other two, so Chancellor Street is unique in the fact that they are all still there and are in good hands.”
“Richard Seddon, concerned at the number of homeless and substandard conditions, decided that the the State should play a larger part in housing. Seddon came from England and had seen for himself good quality council housing available to low income families.”
https://www.riseuprichmond.nz/dudley-character-area/
So while Dudley Character Area in North Richmond remains, Emmett Character Area in Shirley has been removed.
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better it’s not.”
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
UNLESS someone…cares:
– Richard Seddon cared & we have the Chancellor Street Heritage Houses, which influenced the Dudley Character Area.
– George Brington Malcolm cared & we have benefited from his vision in the Emmett Street Oak Trees & MacFarlane Park.
Christchurch City Council please care…
‘Save our Trees’…’Save our Character Area’…’Save our History’…
Let us ‘Tell Our Stories’ to inspire the future generations living around Shirley by:
– looking at other options to save George Malcolm’s Emmett Street Oak Trees.
– if an Oak Tree can’t be saved, please save it’s wood, so that it can be repurposed in a new Centre building at 10 Shirley Road/Shirley Community Reserve or
– creating a carving/sculpture to be placed in MacFarlane Park by the Shirley Community Gardens on Jebson Street, to honor George Malcolm &
– create a new canopy of Oak Trees, either side of the MacFarlane Park path from Jebson Street to Acheson Avenue, to replace the Oak Trees that have been removed already from Emmett Street.
– create a new building at 10 Shirley Road/Shirley Community Reserve, where we can continue to ‘Tell Our Stories’ in a new Shirley Centre, that George Malcolm’s Oak Trees are still a part of Shirley’s character & identity, as we continue to protect our environment for Shirley residents (people & wildlife) to benefit from now & in the future.