At the Annual General Meeting the Parish resolved to go ahead with the sale of most of the tennis court land to the Christchurch Methodist Mission (CMM) to provide housing for the elderly. I indicated then that the government direction on social housing was not yet known. There is some more clarity now. Funding has been reduced and the delivery of housing changed. As part of the programme there will now be 1,500 units delivered by 2027. The first 500 of these have been allocated to projects that were considerably down the procurement process. The proposed project for the tennis courts is not part of that. Later on 1,000 units will be allocated strategically for the whole country. Most of those will be built in key North Island locations, where demand is high. Nevertheless, some will also be allocated to Christchurch. Government will specify the type of housing: it might be 10 four-bedroom houses for families, 20 three-bedroom houses, 15 two-bedroom townhouses, 25 one-bedroom units. This allocation will have to be shared between all community housing providers in Christchurch. CMM planned a 30-unit development for the tennis courts. It is now a lot more difficult to get the project over the line.
Last week the wardens and I met with CMM and Church Property Trustees (CPT). CMM acknowledged the difficulty and encouraged us to also look at alternatives. CPT supported the project and would have liked for it to go ahead, but similarly thought it prudent to look at alternatives, while still keeping the option of the sale to CMM open. This would give us and CMM also a better idea about the market for housing developments in Christchurch. CPT has therefore suggested that the parish hold a SGM to allow Vestry and CPT to consider other options. Vestry will consider a motion suggested by CPT. If agreed, it will then be brought to a SGM.
CMM has also indicated that it would be preferable if the Parish could retain somewhat less than 1,200m2 of land, so that the area available for development has a better shape and can more easily accommodate houses. This would probably also be the case with any other developer.
I am disappointed that this second attempt of using the tennis court land for a good development has run into difficulties. Coming from another Diocese and seeing some of the good developments in other areas, I had hoped that this could also be replicated in Christchurch. Fully aware of the difficulties, I still think that a good outcome can be reached.