The plan’s exceptions
Where the usual rules yield, 1,771 qualifying matters across 980 hectares. When the government required medium-density housing on most residential ground, it kept one door open: a listed matter the density rule bends to. Christchurch’s answers are the heritage items and their settings, the culturally and ecologically significant ground, the coast and the floodways, the utility corridors and the industrial edges, and the kept streets the plan names by name.
The exceptions, drawn
Every mapped matter filled by the plan’s own type, the section-6 matters of national importance in blue, the heritage schedule in brown, the utility corridors in purple. Hover any patch for the matter that holds it.
By the plan’s own type
The matters
Every listed matter on the books, ranked by the ground it qualifies, the coastal-hazard areas ahead of the heritage schedule ahead of the airport’s noise.
The kept streets
The named residential character areas, the streetscapes the plan protects as they stand, operative and notified alike. Inside them the density rule bends to the street’s existing grain.
- Francis8.4 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Esplanade1.8 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Tainui5.9 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Massey2.4 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Lyttelton5.3 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Akaroa9.5 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Akaroa2200 m² · Operative · what stood here →
- Akaroa3.4 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Akaroa6300 m² · Operative · what stood here →
- Akaroa2100 m² · Operative · what stood here →
- Cashmere31.7 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Severn10.8 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Heaton3.6 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Clifton5600 m² · Operative · what stood here →
- Englefield3.2 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Beckenham Loop64.8 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Lyttelton17.4 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Malvern10.2 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Dudley39.4 ha · Operative · what stood here →
- Dudley42.1 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Piko4.4 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Beckenham Loop49.0 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Lyttelton28.3 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Tainui5.6 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Cashmere27.7 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Englefield3.2 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Heaton2.8 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Malvern10.2 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Francis8.0 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Severn10.8 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Bewdley7.2 ha · Notified · what stood here →
- Ryan4.8 ha · Notified · what stood here →
Where the exceptions land
The suburbs by the share of their outline a qualifying matter touches, the coastal suburbs the hazard areas reach first, then the heritage-streeted inner ring.
- Riccarton40% of the outline · 43 matters
- Ilam30% of the outline · 15 matters
- Fendalton25% of the outline · 20 matters
- Richmond24% of the outline · 2 matters
- Shirley15% of the outline · 1 matter
- Northcote10% of the outline · 8 matters
- Christchurch Central City9% of the outline · 32 matters
- Aidanfield8% of the outline · 2 matters
- Aranui7% of the outline · 1 matter
- Redcliffs6% of the outline · 13 matters
Questions, answered briefly
The plan’s exception. When the government required every city to allow medium-density housing on most residential ground, it kept one door open: a qualifying matter, a listed reason the density rule yields. Christchurch’s plan maps 1,771 of them across 980 hectares: the heritage items and their settings, the ground culturally and ecologically significant, the coast and the floodways, the utility corridors, the industrial edges.
By area, utilities matters, 312 hectares across 158 mapped areas. The coastal-hazard management areas are the single biggest kind, the sea’s reach is the plan’s largest exception.
Deliberately. The plan marks 78 areas of significance to Ngāi Tahu as ground where the rule yields, but the schedule does not publish what each holds. The overlay is the plan’s word that the ground matters; the specifics stay with mana whenua.
The kept streets, 32 named residential character areas where the plan protects what already stands: the villa and bungalow streetscapes of Englefield, Heaton, Malvern and their siblings. Inside them the density rule bends to the street’s existing grain.
No, it qualifies. The zone still says what the ground is for; the matter narrows how the density rule applies inside it. A heritage setting limits demolition near a listed place; a coastal-hazard area adds the sea’s accounting to the consent. The zones are at /zones, the reservations at /designations, and a point’s own matters at /before.
The record behind this
Christchurch City Council’s open data, the DistrictPlan service’s DPQualifyingMatter layer, with the named residential character areas from DPResidentialCharacter. A qualifying matter narrows how the density rule applies, it does not forbid; the zone underneath still speaks. The cultural-significance areas are drawn unnamed by the plan itself. The zones are at /zones, the reservations at /designations, and a point’s own matters at /before.
This page as markdown: /matters.md · the record as data: /matters.json · /matters.geojson · on the live map: /map?layer=matters.