Village Planning

This section aims to keep the community informed about any current planning affecting this area including opportunities for your submissions and news of outcomes.​

Local plans and local actions

There are several plans which affect this area on different levels and in different ways.

Some are developed by the city and regional councils, and deal with a wide range of subjects from infrastructure to the types of facilities and services we are able to access. Other plans are more local and have often come about as a result of the work and dedication of local people.

Please find below some details of these different plans, as well as “hot topics” like the Godley House site.

Although plans may put off some people, they are a way of getting things done and in the way we want. Please get involved.

 

Diamond Harbour Village Plan

map of diamond harbour village planThe development of a Village Plan for the area around the Godley House site began after the earthquakes of 2010-2012 in order to revitalise the community.
Part of this involved the creation of  SPRIG  (Stoddart Point Regeneration Ideas Group) which helped gather community ideas and initiated summer concerts and sculpture exhibitions.

Community consultation on a Village Plan started in 2013.  Many knowledgeable and committed local people got involved, and in conjunction with CCC landscape architects and traffic planners, the Getting to the Point Action Plan was developed by 2017.

The context of this plan was underlined by Richard Suggate at the time: “While the Action Plan is prepared by the Community Association with the support of the Council, it only has usefulness in as much as it empowers all sections of the community to be engaged in our local well-being. As such, it is not set in stone and as circumstances change and projects are initiated, there will be opportunities to revise or put out a new version. Many of the projects (e.g. Art, Culture, Business) are in the hands of local individuals, and groups to progress. The DHCA does not ‘own’ these projects, we have created them to facilitate dialogue and collaboration.”

Click for some background information on the plan development.

Godley House

We await with bated breath news from Christchurch City Council on developments on this site, given the community’s clearly-expressed desire for a licensed cafe/bar to at least partly replace the historic hotel/hostelry.

 

City Plans

Christchurch City Council have various plans which affect this area to different degrees:

Plans for our Reserves

Planning for safeguarding the special nature of our area’s ecology has been fairly recent. Nowadays it is more established and forms an element of wider plans, however it is important that however much it may have to develop to cater for changing environmental conditions, that progress is also made at the same time to address the damage of past mistakes and poor practices.

History
The historic vegetation of our Herbert Ecological District was mostly podocarp or conifer-hardwood forest with large areas of lowland short tussock land in the east and north. Plants endemic to the region are noted to include veronica, hebes, cotula, griselinia, and karaka.

After WW1, Church Bay resident Oliver Hunter tried to encourage Lyttelton Council to plant native trees and do more about suppressing weeds. He also supported Orton Bradley and Gardiners in Purau. Sadly, as many times since, Hunter’s native plants were torched in blunt attempts to control gorse and other weeds, but he continued his efforts for decades.

After the 1967 Wahine storm, a large number of native plants were used to replace 200 fallen pines above the jetty area. In the 1990s, the Diamond Harbour and Districts Landscape Management Group was active planting natives (ec-sourced ake ake, pittosporum, cabbage trees, kanuka) around Stoddart Point and in Lower Morgan’s Gully near the beach. After this group folded in 2000, the DH Community Association took over until the creation of the Reserve Management Committee in 2014 under the Banks Peninsula Community Board.

In 2022, the new Diamond Harbour Reserve Committee was given proper co-management status, so that it will at minimum be consulted on all future developments in our reserves, as well as being involved in the planning of any major projects. In particular, efforts are now being made to implement and update the Stoddart Point Reserve and Coastal Cliff Network, Diamond Harbour-Te Waipapa Management Plan 2013
Contact dhreserves@gmail.com for details.

Other plans
Godley House Site to Stoddart Weirs Pathway
Stoddart Point Landscape History and Conservation Report (CCC) June 2017
Stoddart Weirs Architectural Conservation and Management Plan 2017

 

Whero Avenue-Hunters Road Land Block

An Outline Development Plan is currently being prepared by the Property section of CCC following the community’s strong feedback on previous proposals, as well as Community Board and Councillor support for full community consultation.

 

Regional Plans

Environment Canterbury Regional Council is responsible for flood protection, coastal water quality, public transport, Civil Defence, energy conservation, harbour navigation, marine safety, biodiversity protection, predator control, sustainable land management, and other services.