Three Waters entity expected to take control of swath of Christchurch red zone
, 2022-12-12 10:00:00,
Control of some of the residential red zone is expected to pass from Christchurch City Council to the new Three Waters entity in the coming years.
About half of the red zone in the east of the city may fall under the entity’s control, a council map suggests.
It is a possibility because the red zone is being transformed into an area that will treat one of the three waters – stormwater.
“The water service [entity] will be responsible for the urban stormwater infrastructure currently owned and operated by [city council],” Andrew Rutledge, the council’s head of parks, told the inaugural meeting of the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor co-governance establishment committee on Monday.
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“One of the key purposes of the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor is about water. It’s about treating water, it’s about managing water. It’s about letting nature be nature, letting the river be the river.”
Explicit stormwater facilities – retention ponds, wetlands and rain gardens – will clearly be transferred, Rutledge said.
About 30 explicit stormwater management areas were planned or operating in the red zone.
If floodplains were added to the list, then the red zone areas that fell under three waters control could reach 50% or more, according to the map.
“It’s still to be determined how much land transfers and how much stays in some sort of park environment. None of this is black and white,” Rutledge said, given Parliament’s legislation only passed last week.
Ownership of some land would pass to three waters and some would probably remain with the council and Rutledge said it was a “moving feast”.
KAI SCHWOERER/STUFF
About 90 Middleton Grange year 10 students spent their annual service day in the red zone in Burwood, releasing plants, mulching and staking, as well as learning a little about what they are contributing to.
If the “predominant use” of the water asset was stormwater, then “responsibility” would move.
Where recreation and amenities were woven through the water facilities, such as the city to sea pathway in the…
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