Brownlee says 'remediation' not parks
The Government appears set on getting a return on Christchurch's worst earthquake-damaged land, despite growing calls to turn it into parks.
The announcement on Thursday that the Government would buy about 5000 predominantly riverside properties snaking through the city's east raised hopes among environmental groups and urban planners that a permanent green corridor would occupy at least some of the abandoned land. However, Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee scotched that idea yesterday.
"It's not our intention that it will become a park," he said. "We still consider that remediation is a long-term option."
He said the land would be bought to give insured property owners the option to leave so it could be remediated.
"We obviously want to see it kept in a tidy condition, so as houses are vacated they will be demolished," he said. "The land will be simply, I would imagine, just put into a rolling flat-type state and grassed."
It may be "some years" before the land could be engineered for residential sections again, he said. "For a good number of years it will be open space and we'll want to make sure that it is in a state that reflects the sort of general amenity value of Christchurch."
Engineering consultants Tonkin & Taylor estimate the total area of land to be abandoned at 350 hectares – just over twice the size of Hagley Park.
Christchurch Green MP Kennedy Graham said turning riverside properties into green spaces would honour the residents who had to leave.
Just "slapping up" homes again in those worst-hit areas was a bad response in terms of continued seismic activity, sustainability and sea level rise, he said.
"What New Zealanders seem to want and need now is interestingly enough found in Europe, which is they want green spaces inside their cities," he said.
New Zealand Institute of Architects Canterbury chairman Jasper van der Lingen said it was a "tragic story" for people having to leave the area.
"Once the pain dissipates, eventually, there is a massive opportunity, isn't there, to provide some sort of beautiful park/wetland and maybe reclaim it back perhaps close to what it originally was."
He imagined "a more organic Hagley Park" with walkways, cycleways and places to sit.
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) chief executive Roger Sutton told a community meeting in Linwood yesterday about 50 homes in the residential red zone are uninsured.
He did not know what would happen to them, but expected they would have an answer within nine months.
He believed the Government would end up forcing those people to move.Central Christchurch Labour MP Brendon Burns said he thought the number would be much higher.
A Cera spokeswoman said its focus was working with insured owners.
"We encourage [the uninsured] to contact us so we can talk to them about their individual circumstances and explore what their options might be," she said
"The reality for all properties in the red zone is that the infrastructure will not be repaired or maintained, meaning properties will eventually not be viable."
- The Nelson Mail
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