What is Changing for the Christchurch Airport Noise Contours?
Environment Law partner Margo Perpick provides an update on the remodelled noise level settings for residential land development around Christchurch Airport.
Has your land been affected by the Christchurch Airport Noise Contours? They have been remodelled, and you may now be free of them.
What Are the Christchurch Airport Noise Contours?
The contours are a mapped representation of the predicted noise levels from the Christchurch Airport over the next 30 years. They extend into Selwyn and Waimakariri Districts, as well as covering a large part of Christchurch City District.
The contours take into account many factors, such as likely frequency and flight paths of flights, and predicted aircraft engine noise levels - which have come down considerably over the last 60 years, and will continue to drop, particularly with a shift to aircraft with electric or hydrogen engines.
Under current policy settings in the Canterbury Regional Policy Statement, the Christchurch District Plan, the Selwyn District Plan and the Waimakariri District Plan, land within the Christchurch Airport 50 dB contour is effectively prevented from being developed for housing or other “noise-sensitive uses”.
This is in spite of the fact that the New Zealand Noise Standard does not prevent housing within the 50 dB contour, and neither does any other district in the country (or indeed, across the planet). Most plans enable housing up to the 65 dB contour, but require noise insulation within the 55 dB contour. No other plans prevent housing between the 50 and 55 dB contours.
What is Changing for the Contours?
The contours which are currently embedded in the operative Canterbury Regional Policy Statement, Christchurch District Plan, Selwyn District Plan and Waimakariri District Plan were modelled in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and became operative in 2008. They were supposed to be reviewed in 2018, but that process was late in getting started, and then with Covid interruptions, did not conclude until 2023.
In 2023 the remodelled, peer-reviewed contours emerged. On the western edge of Christchurch, as well as at the “tips” of the contours in Rolleston and Kaiapoi, the contours have retreated towards the airport. This is in spite of increased flight numbers in the future, and is generally due to altered flight paths away from populated areas, and decreasing aircraft engine noise.
Your land may have been within the 2008 50 dB contours, but is now outside of the 2023 50 dB contours. If so, housing development opportunities which were previously prevented may now be open to you.
In addition, the Canterbury Regional Council has signalled a policy shift, in its draft Canterbury Regional Policy Statement, to “enable” instead of “avoid” housing developments between the 50 and 55 dB airport noise contours. So, your land may still be within the 2023 50 dB contour, but outside of the 2023 55 dB contour, and have development opportunities which have been thwarted up until now.
For expert guidance on how the reforms may affect your land or development, contact Margo Perpick or Chris Fowler.