Akaroa Harbour Basin settlements study

The Christchurch City Council has undertaken a strategic planning study of the settlements of the Akaroa Harbour Basin.

Akaroa Harbour Basin map.

This study was completed in September 2009 and adopted by the Council as a guide to future decision making.

Its purpose was to take an integrated, long-term view (25–30 years) of land use change and other issues within the settlements of the harbour basin and incorporate the local community's preferences on how future land use changes should be managed.

The study focused on the following urban settlements: 

The areas indicated on each map are for information-gathering purposes only and are not planned settlement growth areas.

Issues and prospective projects identified

In September 2009, the final reports for the Akaroa Harbour Basin Settlements Study were endorsed by the Council as a guide to assist future decision making and planning processes.

The two final documents are

The Issues and Prospective Projects report is divided into two core parts:

  • Issues: the issues that currently affect the eight harbour basin settlements, or are likely to affect these settlements in the future.  Identification of the issues has been informed through a combination of pre-existing technical reports and other documents, and public feedback on the Identifying the issues - discussion document (October 2007) [PDF, 4.6 MB]
  • Prospective Projects: During 2008, Council staff identified and prioritised a range of options that would address the issues. Public consultation on the options was undertaken early 2009.

The preferred options are identified as ‘prospective projects’ in the final reports. Some projects are multi-disciplinary (for example the Detailed Planning Studies and the Akaroa Places and Spaces Plan), but most are more confined in their scope.

Sieve mapping

The Council completed a sieve mapping analysis (mapping and overlaying land use constraint and opportunity areas) for the settlement study areas. This has identified areas where further investigation into managing settlement growth or consolidation may be warranted in the medium to long term via detailed planning studies.

Background technical reports

A number of technical reports have been received in relation to the harbour basin settlements. These are available to view or download.

Real estate market

Coastal erosion and inundation 

Land instability/landslide hazard

Business land supply 

Historical flooding research and assessment 

Please note that we have two reports on historical flooding:

Akaroa tourism carrying capacity study