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A campsite in Christchurch's earthquake damaged red zone has been given the initial go-ahead by a committee overseeing the future of the land.
The Motor Caravan Association wants to set up a park on red zone land near the Avon River in New Brighton, for use by its members.
This comes shortly after the council handed out leaflets to a community of about 60 homeless people on red-zoned land the other side of the river giving them a deadline for when they need to move on from their makeshift camp.
Standing on the edge of the Avon River near Owles Terrace in New Brighton there is red zone land, land cleared of homes due to earthquake damage, on both sides on the bank.
On the other of the river in Bexley is Wetlands Grove, a street in abandoned after the 2011 earthquake and now lined with cars, caravans, buses, tents and a few ramshackle structures used as homes for a growing community.
The council has given some support to those living on the street there, with portaloos and skips for rubbish, but have also said it ultimately plans to flood the area to turn it literally into wetlands.
The community had been told that everyone needed to relocate by 28 February 2027.
One resident of community, Moko, said he had no problem with the council's plans, but he'd love to know where he and the others were supposed to go.
"We've got people from (age) three right through to 65 that live here. They need help. If we can do it as a community, we need somewhere to go. If you want to do this and flood this into wetlands, do what ever you like. We'll support you, we'll help you do it. But we need somewhere to go," Moko said.
He said they couldn't park up by the beach or in the central city due to restrictions, so had come to the red zone to create a community together.
On Tuesday a meeting of the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor Regeneration Committee, a newly formed co-governance committee with representatives from council and mana whenua, considered an application from the Motor Caravan Association to set up a camp of its own in the red zone.
Tania Wati, one of the mana whenua representatives, said she didn't have any problem with the Motor Caravan Associations' proposal, but did find the contrast between the treatment of both campers challenging.
"My challenge is we are about to move-on orders for campers apparently in February, yet we are going to say yes to a camper van park. So make that make sense for the ones who are probably illegally camping where they are camping but we are approving a caravan park down the road," Tania Wati said.
Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger, who is also on the committee, said he thought the project would be very positive for the area.
The committee ultimately voted unanimously to support the proposal to move to the next stage, which would require the campervan association to meet a number of conditions including providing more detail about site use, and doing contamination testing and any required clean up work.
The association said decisions about site access and layout had yet to be made
At its other parks around the country members could stay for up to 10 days over a 30 day-period, though the association said most people stayed just a couple of nights.
All of the motorhomes and caravans used for camping needed to be certified as self-contained.
James Imlach, the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association (NZMCA)'s national manager of property and policy said the camp would bring more business to New Brighton, including spin-offs for a nearby camping ground.
"We believe based on other parks around the country that the NZMCA site will attract members who would otherwise by-pass New Brighton. They might decide we want to stay a couple more nights in the area but want access to power, want a better shower or to use the laundry and they will go and stay at the holiday park."
Imlach said all going well it hoped to have the camp ground up and running in about a year's time.
