A survey shows residents want Christchurch’s night life and nighttime economy to thrive.

Throughout September, Christchurch City Council ran a survey asking for views on noise in the central city to help address tensions that have arisen as the area continues to grow and evolve.

This would ultimately involve changes to Christchurch’s District Plan.

3,339 people including 92 central city businesses, 1,068 central city residents and 2,239 broader residents responded to questions about the noise environment. This included feedback on what sort of noise levels are expected, areas being defined for entertainment, and acoustic insulation.

Head of City Growth and Property Bruce Rendall said, “People made it very clear through the survey that any district plan change would need to help enable a vibrant nighttime economy for the city.”

“We also heard that most people think living in the central city comes hand-in-hand with increased noise levels compared to living in the suburbs and they do not want the growing residential population to come at the expense of our nighttime economy,” Rendall said.

Respondents indicated changing noise precincts/zones was the preferred district plan change, followed by increased noise limits (i.e. allowance for more noise) to focus on nighttime economy and finally changes to acoustic insulation requirements.

“We need to balance having content inner-city residents with thriving businesses and nightlife. These results give us a good understanding of the community’s expectations for living in and visiting the central city at night and will help us establish the sorts of support the council could provide to residents and businesses while we work on long term changes,” he said.

Council staff are continuing to work on a review of how the district plan manages the effects of different activities in the central city, including entertainment precincts, noise limits and insulation requirements.

A district plan change is expected to be ready for consultation by 2025.