Council’s plan to look into housing in red zone like ‘picking a scab’, angry resident says
Friday, 5 June 2026
Allowing housing on Christchurch land taken by the Government after the earthquakes was like “picking a scab”, according to the head of a Richmond community group.
It was one of many unresolved grievances that poured out at a public forum discussing red zone issues on Thursday night.
The forum was analysing the Christchurch City Council’s proposal to allow housing on the edges of the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. It turned emotional and angry after the 90-minute mark, when the audience was allowed to ask questions.
“You’re about 20 to 30 years too early,” said Murray James, chairperson of the We are Richmond community group.
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“When we’re dead, our kids probably won’t give a rat’s ass, but right now, there are still some very painful memories,” he said.
The idea of allowing housing on land that was taken by central government after the earthquakes - often against the will of the owners - was “picking a scab”, James said.
“There's some very large assumptions that you're doing this for our good, and nobody has tested that theory on us,” said Sheena Bernard.
She rebuilt her house on the very edge of the red zone and criticised the “lack of engagement with red edge residents”.
“This feels like it's being done to us.”
Another speaker wanted fuller compensation for her taken land.
“We had to pay huge legal fees, we had to pay moving costs. And now you want to move onto our land?
“That land was where I brought my children up, that we can’t even go back in there and remember. It’s that bad. Yeah, so why could you even consider building a house [there]? Why can you not compensate us - all of us - first?”
This drew loud cheers.
City councillor Kelly Barber said her argument is “with the Government, not the council”.
“Yeah, but you're proposing this, so you need to talk with the Government and say, ‘Hey, enough is enough’,” she fired back.
Facilitator Peter Beck, a long time red zone advocate, agreed. “It is a really serious question that needs to be taken to the Government,“ he said.
When another speaker asked about “all the people that took their lives through this red zone stuff - and there were multiple people who did”, Beck steered the forum back to edge housing.
Housing on about 10 hectares of red-zoned corridor land was permitted in the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor Regeneration Plan, which took years and multiple rounds of public consultation to get through. It was notified in 2019 and has legal force, but the council can opt out of the housing aspect.
There are 602ha of red zone land and the proposal would allow housing on about 2% of them. There could be about 100 homes if all edge parcels were built on.
The council will soon issue a “request for information” to community housing providers, Kāinga Ora, iwi, charitable trusts and private developers to gauge their interest and ideas for the edge lands.
Council’s red zone manager, David Little, denied council was secretly planning to expand beyond the 2% threshold. “Absolutely not. No-one wants to do that,” he said.
Barber asked for a show of hands from the 100-plus people present at the Richmond Club. Allowing two and three-storey houses got no support. Allowing one-storey houses got a few hands.
Allowing no housing got a strong majority. He called that a “really good steer”.
As the two-hour event closed, Beck said: “Bugger the council. We're going to get what we need and what we want for our city, for our communities”.
Forum co-organiser and red zone advocate Hayley Guglietta promised a community response to the request for information and said “we hope we can do this again”.