Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Hundreds want properties rezoned

Updated at 8:10 am on 22 July 2012

Nearly 1200 Christchurch homeowners with land declared habitable want a zoning review to write off the properties instead.

The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) last month announced an expert panel would review all insured residential properties with owners who wanted to contest their zoning. Applications closed at the end of June.

CERA said on Friday about 1300 people in total asked for their land zoning decisions to be reviewed.

Of those, almost 1200 want green zoned properties to be rezoned red, which indicates the land cannot be built on again, while 150 asked for condemned land to be put in the green zone instead.

The suburb of Richmond has had most review requests, with 142 property owners asking to be rezoned green, and 14 wanting their land changed to red.

CERA chief executive Roger Sutton says the number of people wanting to go red is so high because many feel it will make their situation simpler.

Decisions 'impressive', in timeframe

A panel member says the Government's initial conclusions are impressive given the timeframe and information that was available.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances chairman Keith Turner says the Government's decisions are comprehensive, but wouldn't be drawn further.

He is confident the reviews will be completed by the end of the month as expected.

Listen to Keith Turner on Checkpoint

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