Christchurch developers threaten to pull out of central city projects after plans to make some streets one-way

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From reporter Steven Walton:

Leading Christchurch developers are scaling back major projects, putting others on hold and threatening to pull out of the central city altogether in protest of council plans to make some streets one-way.

Philip Carter and Shaun Stockman made stark warnings to Christchurch city councillors on Wednesday as they vented about a $33 million plan to make roads around the new Te Kaha stadium more pedestrian-friendly.

One of the most significant proposals in the plan is to make Lichfield St, between Madras and Manchester St, one-way with a 10kph speed limit, though three quarters of the 1200 submitters supported this.

A leading transport academic was among those in support and said the streets had to be made safer.

But Carter and Stockman said the council was breaking promises of earlier post-earthquake rebuild documents, which had left them without certainty.

Carter, who developed The Crossing, said the documents showed Lichfield St would remain two-way.

The street was an “artery” for his car park at The Crossing and the council was “tampering” with it, he said.

Making it one-way would break trust, he said, adding that he had “deep concerns” about anything that affected traffic coming into the city.

He also criticised council plans to make part of Gloucester St one-way, which were recently put on hold.

“You guys [the council] continue to make it so hard,” Carter said.

“You are now driving investments away.”

In light of the council proposals, Carter said:

- He would stop a planned development on the old Holiday Inn site, despite having attracted an international tenant with no other New Zealand stores.
- He was no longer prepared to be involved in the planned car park for the new Catholic Cathedral precinct.
- He would downscale his planned international hotel beside the new Te Pae convention centre.
- Carter said he also wanted to stop work on an office building in Cathedral Square , but could not because construction had recently commenced.

He said he recently showed a London investor a site near the convention centre and asked him if he wanted to put a hotel there. After hearing about the Gloucester St plans, the investor replied: “Why would I”, Carter said.

A council analysis of those who wanted Lichfield St to remain two-way found many were concerned about loss of parking and traffic flow. Some also wanted cars to take priority.

But planning just for cars was “at best unbelievably naive and at worst plain dumb”, according to Canterbury University professor Simon Kingham, who is also chief science adviser to the Ministry of Transport.

“You need to provide good alternatives, [such as] walking, cycling and public transport and people will change their behaviour,” he said.

“This is clearly what the evidence says.”

Kingham backed council staff’s view that the streets had to be safer and more pedestrian-friendly.

He said he was horrified when the plans were paused last year.

Youth-led climate action organisation Generation Zero also supported the one-way option and said the streets should be redesigned to be safer for pedestrians, cyclists, scooter and mobility device users.

The council analysis said submitters backing the one-way plan supported enhanced pedestrian access, more safety, as well as the greening and beautification of the street.

Five Lichfield St businesses supported the one-way plan while four wanted the two-way option.

Out of all Christchurch businesses that submitted, 17 supported one-way while 35 wanted two-way.

Developer Shaun Stockman was among the latter. He said his company’s board was so alarmed by the proposed revamp that it had paused two projects.

“If these proposals as per go ahead, we will be stopping any further investment in Christchurch CBD fullstop,” he said.

Stockman claimed the revamp overlooked the elderly and disabled communities; removed an unnecessary amount of car parking; and would take away valuable trade from businesses.

Stockman said he did not own buildings in the affected streets, but owned some in surrounding streets.

The views of residents and businesses are now being considered by councillors Melanie Coker, Tyrone Fields, Sara Templeton, Mark Peters, and Yani Johanson.

They will make a recommendation to council on how to proceed with the revamp, with a final decision to be made by the full council.