About us : Greater Christchurch

Local councils, government agencies and iwi have been collaborating on planning and managing the impacts of growth and development on the Greater Christchurch area including Christchurch City and the surrounding towns in Selwyn and Waimakariri Districts.

We developed the Urban Development Strategy (UDS) with the community, and implementing the strategy continues to be a core component of our work.

The Greater Christchurch Partnership comprises:

Councils in the Greater Christchurch area
(external link)Iwi
- Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu(external link)
Government organisations

The Greater Christchurch Partnership also has a close working relationship with Ōtākaro Ltd(external link), which is implementing the anchor projects for the government, the Christchurch City Council’s regeneration agency Development Christchurch Ltd(external link), and the regionally focused Canterbury Mayoral Forum(external link).

The work of the regeneration agencies is critical to achieving the long-term vision for Greater Christchurch.

We’ve set up a joint committee, the Greater Christchurch Partnership Committee (GCPC), with representatives from each Partner’s organisations to lead and coordinate our projects.

We want our work to be accessible and available to our communities so all GCP Committee agenda papers and minutes accessed here.

In addition to the GCP Committee, we’ve been successfully collaborating at every level within our partner organisations, from Chief Executives and senior managers to staff technical working groups. You can view find our more about our governance and partners here.

The partners’ collaboration is based upon a series of important planning documents that provide long-term direction and enable consistent, effective and efficient decision-making.

The Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy (UDS) sets out a vision for 2041, and details the key actions required to deliver the vision. Coordinated planning of our urban areas, including the provision of housing, transport, social, health and recreational facilities provides long-term benefits for the people and communities living here. The original Strategy and Action Plan was adopted in 2007 and was updated post-quake in 2016. The UDS is the primary document enabling effective collaboration by the Partnership.

The Resilient Greater Christchurch Plan enables leaders to work together to empower our communities to face the future with confidence. Resilience involves understanding the challenges we face and developing ways to adapt and co-create a new normal. The strength of our resilience lies in us, as individuals, and as communities and whānau.

The Greater Christchurch Transport Statement (GCTS)(external link) is a framework for integrated transport planning and network development. The GCTS focuses on the strategic links between key places within the Greater Christchurch area, with the partners committed to working together to build resilience, efficiency and reliability into the transport network, at the same time ensuring the community is provided with sustainable transport choices. The Christchurch International Airport, the Lyttelton Port of Christchurch, KiwiRail and Ministry of Transport are all signatories to the GCTS along with the members of the Partnership.

The Partnership has undertaken a review of the strategic land use planning framework for Greater Christchurch. The Greater Christchurch Partnership Committee meeting on 14 June 2019 endorsed the final Our Space 2018-2048(external link) as the future development strategy for Greater Christchurch, having endorsed the Report and Recommendations(external link) of the Hearings Panel.

Find out more on our Our SPACE page.

Find more information about:

Governance and partners: information on our Committee (including meeting agendas and minutes), how we work, and our Partner organisations
Background: lots of information about how we got here and what we’ve been doing since 2003
Projects: the range of plans and programmes being implemented to deliver the Urban Development Strategy vision
Our SPACE: information on our review of the long-term settlement planning approach outlined in the Urban Development Strategy
Updates: latest information, news and updates from us and our regeneration partners
Indicators: our Greater Christchurch outcomes monitoring