Christchurch City Council unveils $2.5m plan for riverfront red zone space
Monday, 23 February 2026
A fraction of Christchurch’s red zone close to the city centre will mostly be turned over to recreation.
The area between Fitzgerald Ave and Stanmore Rd on the north side of the Avon River already contains privately held tennis courts, the Bill Sutton Heritage House and Garden, and part of the City to Sea Pathway.
These will be supplemented with nature play areas, walking tracks, a viewing platform, fruit trees, educational spaces and ecological restoration, according to a high-level design document to be presented to the local community board on Monday.
The document is open to having markets for farmers and artisans, food trucks, art creation and exhibition spaces, callisthenics equipment, other types of racquet sports like pickle ball and more.
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“The new heart of the project area will be a vibrant place for visitors and residents to meet, engage [and] explore, all while being immersed in an ecological-driven landscape,” the Christchurch City Council briefing document promises.
The stretch is small - about 400 metres long and about 155m at its widest side - and bounded by housing to the north, busy roads on both ends, and the river constrained by Avonside Drive on the south.
As a result, its “ecological potential is lower” than other, downstream parts of the Ōtākaro-Avon River Corridor, as this part of the red zone is formally known.
The area is characterised by terraces that naturally contribute to flood protection and the council’s three waters department will enhance those in due course.
The council’s parks department - which is developing the corridor - said it expects to spend $2.5 million on this project. Community consultation will start in March and drive the final design. Construction is expected to start in May 2027 and finish by December.
The northeast strip of this red zone parcel is designated an “edge housing area”, which means it can be developed into housing.
This was envisaged in the corridor’s 2019 Regeneration Plan.
“The red zone process left abrupt edges and interrupted streets” that could be mended, it stated.
“Where appropriate, this may involve … new housing facing the river,” which is the situation here.
The regeneration plan calls for space for “public and private innovation and trials of adaptive housing that can provide solutions to the housing challenges we have now, and those we will face in the future”.
We “would not support the land being sold and we never will”, said Hayley Guglietta, spokesperson for the Avon-Ōtākaro Network, which advocates for restorative uses of the corridor.
In 2020, the council said the sale of red zone land would be managed through its existing policies and procedures, which includes consideration in its annual plan and public consultation.