Introducing the South-West Christchurch Area Plan (SWAP)
The 2009 South-West Area Plan is a long-term plan (35 years plus) for managing the effects of urban growth on the environment, infrastructure (for example roads) and communities. The Area Plan integrates land-use planning with key infrastructure projects, such as the major sewer upgrade, strategic roading projects (such as the proposed Southern Motorway) and community facilities, like the new Halswell library.
An area plan is a guiding document that takes a very broad and long term view of land development opportunities in an area, and provides a framework for managing the effects of both existing and future urban growth.
A brief recap on how we got here
Over the past three years, the Council has focused on researching the urban growth issues facing South-West Christchurch. These issues have been reported in a series of studies covering the following topics:
Building on these technical reports, a series of draft concept plans were prepared to indicate how urban growth issues can be resolved and urban development managed to avoid adverse effects on the environment, infrastructure and the community.
These draft concept plans were taken out for community consultation in August 2007. Feedback received indicated broad support for the concepts being proposed. For more information about the consultation and a summary of the key findings, refer to the 2007 Community Views Report [PDF 2.0MB]
A progress roadmap for the development and implementation of the SWAP may be found on the progress diagram page.
