Weighing the Anchors
Thursday 4 December 2014
WEA,
59 Gloucester St, Christchurch
Opening: Rex welcomed everyone to the forum and
invited a blessing on the meeting.
Introduction: Katherine Peet explained the kaupapa of OVTRK
and gave an overview of our Sector. She
also told how some people had communicated to her that they felt too angry to
come tonight because they are so concerned that the wellbeing of people is
being overlooked due to the focus on the anchor projects. They were apprehensive that an angry contribution
would affect the respect for their NGO and their access to funding.
Don Miskell, Christchurch Central Development
Unit, CERA: “Implementing
‘Share an Idea’”.
The earthquake gave us the opportunity to fix up what
wasn’t working well before the quakes; implement lessons learned from disasters
that had happened elsewhere, and create a new vision.
He outlined the process that resulted in the Central
City Blueprint and stated that the information from the Share an Idea
initiative was captured in the Council’s Draft Central City Plan. CCDU was set up and went back to the ideas
from Share an Idea. These fell under the
general headings of Accessible City, Distinctive City, Green City, Compact
City, and a great place to live, work, play, learn, visit, and invest in. These became the strategic goals of the
Central City Blueprint.
The first step in developing the blueprint was to talk
to Ngai Tahu and especially Ngai Tuahuriri in whose rohe Chch City sits. They wanted their values and stories
reflected back. Two most important
values were ‘look after your people, care for your visitors’; and ‘look after
the environment’. All the project groups
have Ngai Tahu representation on them and they have a strong influence.
Accessible
City means that all people of all ages are able to
participate in city life. All the anchor
project plans have an accessibility audit.
CCDU have a good relationship with the disability sector.
The flat landscape is perfect for cycling and
walking. In the new central city CCDU is
not going to provide for any greater car density than before the
earthquake. They are aiming to triple
the number of people who access the city by public transport, cycling or
walking. They are also slowing down
speeds in the core.
Distinctive
City: CCDU have a
target to have 20,000 people living in the central city. Central city residents don’t need a car to
get around the city. Having lots of
central city residents also makes the city safer, more vibrant and more
interesting. Currently there are just
under 5000 living in central city. The
aim is to have a very diverse population.
Green frame in the east between Madras and Manchester Sts is being
developed for high density residential use.
Green City
is about environmental health and human wellbeing. When people talk about Christchurch as a
garden city, the vision is not a 19th century English version, they are
asking “what is a new garden city?” “How
do we design a walkable city?” The cost
of the Avon River Precinct includes a lot of environmental remediation, and
more life is coming back into the river.
Prosperous
City didn’t come out of Share an Idea but the city needs a
healthy economy to sustain the other aspects.
High density populations generally create higher wages and greater
economic activity. There are greater opportunities
for chance meetings with people who stimulate ideas. Prior to the quakes 20% of Canterbury economic
activity came out of Christchurch central city; and 70% of that came from out
of offices.
The stadium and convention centre will not be a
stand-alone facility but will include other facilities and have multi-use. Each facility will exist as part of a
precinct that will include residential, hospitality and retail. They are designed to be close to the city so
that people attending them will go into the central city and be easily accessed
from the city.
Discussion:
Q: In people
terms, what will your measures of success be?
Don: Each
project will be assessed in terms of ease of use for everyone, and there will
be other measures as well. There are
business cases for all the proposals.
Public sector investment is there to catalyse private sector
investment. For every dollar the crown
spends the private sector will spend $6 and we cannot impose measures on their
expenditure. It has been important to
define sites for the precincts so that private sector had certainty of where to
invest.
Q: The idea of
having a compact city and having more public transport is a good one. However it needs critical mass of population
to make public transport cost effective.
There are also particular needs that public transport can’t always
meet. For instance the hospital and
health precinct will need lots of car parking.
Is this being addressed?
Don: we want to
make it easy to get to the city but not through the city. The city council is developing a parking
strategy, and parking is being discussed with the hospital.
Q: The city
that is being described sounds as if it will be expensive to live in. How many wealthy people do we have in
Christchurch to support all these exciting sounding opportunities? Is there enough of a market to buy the
apartments, patronise the cafes, etc? If
the city is unaffordable then it is still inaccessible in spite of the CCDU
efforts to make it an accessible city.
Don: the
private sector won’t build what they don’t have a market for. However CCDU has very limited influence over
how much it will cost to live in the city or take part in the city lifestyle.
Q: People don’t
understand the siting of the stadium. Where
are there models or examples of locating a stadium close to the central
city?
Don: The
softball stadium in Baltimore has offices, shops, etc all around it, it didn’t
look like a stadium. The street is very
lively and an attractive area to be in.
Q: Who would be
in charge of what businesses would be part of the stadium? Isn’t the CERA vision actually dependent on
the building owner?
Don: typically we do a business case, which includes
what businesses will be part of it and how it will be managed. The stadium is low down on the list so we
haven’t started the business plan yet. If
the business plan doesn’t stack up it possibly won’t be built.
Q: You keep
saying ‘we’ are wanting to do this. Who
is the ‘we’? From the outside it looks
like different projects have different configurations of CCC, CERA, and maybe
others. How does the average citizen
talk to the ‘we’ about the holistic view?
The concentration on the “market” approach to social planning leaves out
people who don’t have the funds to participate in the market. There is no such thing as supply and demand,
only supply and funded demand. If you have no funds the market does not
respond.
Don: There is
interest in retaining the public realm.
I need to think more about how this can be done. The Public Realm Network is planned to provide
places that people can go to take part in public conversations.
Comment:
Learning about what is contained in the “bubble of thought” that has
shaped this plan has been very enlightening.
From the questions and comments tonight it’s likely that this bubble
will be pricked often by residents.
Q: We undertook
a survey of NGO accommodation needs.
NGOs would like to be in the central city within walking distance of
public transport. This is not something
that the market is going to deliver. If
we have people we need social infrastructure and social support.
Don: I think
you should be in the central city. I
can’t help you with how. There is some
crown owned land, for example in the south frame, that hasn’t been designated
for any purpose yet. I will talk to
Denise (Denise Kidd, CERA) about what is possible.
Q: There are
some well-populated residential areas that had considered themselves central
city but they are just on the other side of the frame and it feels they have
been overlooked in connecting to the new central city. There is a loss of accessibility to services
such as supermarkets since the quakes.
How does the central city plan connect with these neighbourhoods?
Don: we need to do what you’re suggesting and look at
this, it’s important for the city.
Q: It’s good to
see that the the Blueprint is manifesting ‘Share an Idea’. Can we have the share an idea website reinstated? There is nowhere to find the detail any
more. Don undertook to look into this.
Q: The future
of the city depends on whether families and children will live in the inner city. There has been no mention of this
tonight.
Don: this certainly is on our radar. There will be the Margaret Mahy playground
and a park the length of the east frame provides space where children can play.
Q: The quality
and design of the buildings and community are important. I haven’t heard about high quality building
tonight. For example Susan Krumdieck’s
team’s plans. What about a definition of
‘value for money’ that is holistic? In
the residential rebuild we seem to have cheap, nasty, not designed to last and
address issues of climate change.
Don: the residential rebuild is not part of CCDU. In the central city there are environmental
standards. Response: You need to lift the bar higher.
Q: Any convention
centres around the world are loss-making, has the business case been made for
it?
Don: yes, it will be a precinct, which will include
offices, residential, hospitality.
Q: Why was
Centennial pool closed?
Don: That was a
CCC decision – it didn’t want to maintain two large pools with all the
resources that would involve.
Q: There seems
to be an assumption of continual population growth. Why is that?
Don: we have assumed some population growth, but are
hoping to encourage current suburban residents to move into the city.
Close: Rex thanked Don for coming along and for all
the new information he presented, then closed the meeting with a karakia.
