Draft recovery plan for Christchurch CBD released

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee today welcomed the Christchurch City Council's release of its draft recovery plan for the Christchurch central business district.

The draft CBD Recovery Plan details more than 70 projects, including 10 key projects, to be implemented over the next 10 to 20 years as part of the rebuild of Christchurch following the series of major earthquakes and aftershocks in the region.

"These projects have been strongly influenced by the more than 100,000 ideas shared by the community and key stakeholders during the council's Share an Idea campaign," Mr Brownlee said.

"It has been a major task for the council to pull the draft plan together within four months and there will no doubt be a robust debate on it. I look forward to hearing the views of the people of Christchurch.

"The draft plan has a pretty big wish list. It's now up to the people of Christchurch to debate the plan, prioritise its projects and decide how much they are prepared to pay to fund them," he said.

"The council advises that the majority of the projects in the draft plan will be funded by insurance proceeds and by ratepayers."

The Christchurch City Council was tasked by the government to lead the development of the CBD Recovery Plan when it established the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) in April.

The draft CBD Recovery plan will be available online at www.centralcityplan.co.nz from Tuesday 16 August. Submissions close at 5pm on Friday 16 September.

CERA is working with the Christchurch City Council on rebuilding the region and supporting the welfare of its residents. For more information visit www.cera.govt.nz