Feedback considered before decision made on Christchurch’s proposed Performing Arts Precinct carpark

Christchurch City Councillors are considering more than 250 submissions from the public before they decide whether to go ahead with an agreement that will see a new carpark built in Christchurch’s Performing Arts Precinct.

The Performing Arts Precinct is the city's outlet for creative performance, offering first-rate facilities for music, drama, dance and other performing arts with the precinct currently including the Isaac Theatre Royal and The Piano: Centre for Music and the Arts.

The Council is working in partnership with The Court Theatre to build the theatre’s new central city home in the precinct. The concept design for the new Court Theatre was released in November 2020. The completed three-storey theatre will house a 360-seat main playhouse auditorium, a 130-seat studio theatre and front-of-house facilities. Construction of the $36 million project is anticipated to start in March with an opening date for the new Court Theatre to be in late 2023.

Christchurch City Council advise that In November 2021, they signed a conditional agreement with Wilson Parking New Zealand to purchase the empty land at 137–141 Gloucester Street – at market value at the time negotiation started. The agreement also required that the building contain parking for bikes, scooters and electric vehicles.

Under the conditional agreement, Wilson Parking undertook to design, build, own and operate a 320–400 space public carpark building on the land, which is next to the Isaac Theatre Royal.

Part of the agreement with Wilson Parking states that the 2081 square metres of land must be used as a carpark for the next 30 years, and that the carpark building will be built at no cost to the Council.  It also required that the building could be adapted for alternative uses should the demand for car parking fall in the future.

The Council’s agreement with Wilson Parking is subject to public consultation over the associated sale of the land and the elected Council’s approval of that sale.

The proposal to sell the land was released for public comment from November–December 2021. The Council received 257 submissions, of which 38 supported the proposal.  The other 219 submissions were against the proposal.

The main theme of the submissions opposed to the proposal related to climate change, with references to the Council’s Climate Resilience Strategy and its declaration of a climate emergency.

• 37 submissions commented on climate change in general and that we are in a climate emergency.

• 61 submissions commented that we need to encourage other modes of transport into the city. These comments included; improving the bus service and connecting the cycle ways.

• 57 submissions didn’t want a car park in this location and the land should be used differently. Some suggestions were to keep it for performances, or retain as a grassed / open area.

• A number of other submissions were opposed to Wilson Parking owning and operating the car parking building.

Those in support, including tenants of the Performing Arts Precinct, spoke about the current lack of parking facilities in the area and the opportunity to make visiting the precinct easier.

Council staff are recommending the sale go ahead. That is largely because the Council’s 2015 Christchurch Central Parking Plan identified the need for a new off-street parking building, or buildings, in the area north of Cathedral Square to help meet demand for public parking in the area.

The Crown transferred the Gloucester Street land to the Council in 2020 as part of the Global Settlement Agreement, with the expectation that a carpark building would be built there to help serve the Performing Arts Precinct. The Performing Arts Precinct includes The Court Theatre, Isaac Theatre Royal and The Piano. A new parking building in that location will also support Te Pae and Tūranga.

If the Council decides not to sell the land, it could decide to pursue other options to deliver a carpark building.

If the land sale goes ahead, it is hoped the carpark building will be completed by late 2023.

Read the staff report here 

Image courtesy Christchurch City Council