Designs have been drawn up and the Christchurch City Council has given approval for plans to turn a northern part of the former Orion site in St Albans into a village for 200 workers rebuilding the city.
The complex will be known as the Cressy Village. Cressy was the name of one of the first four (of 25) ships bringing people from England to settle in Christchurch between 1850 and 1853. Drawings of the proposed site can be found here: Temporary workers accommodation plan
Workers will be housed in one person units and communal facilities such as a gym and cafe will be provided on site for Cressy residents only. A manager, who is being provided with accommodation, will help make sure the workers make good neighbours. Some of the site will be sealed for carparking and building access, while the remainder will be grassed over. No soil will be removed. Most trees on the site will be kept and supplemented with plants in pots. The buildings are all relocatable and it is expected that the site will be completely cleared of temporary buildings by 2022.
The fenced village is one of several planned by CERA to house workers rebuilding the city. Numbers of incoming construction workers and engineers are expected to grow exponentially as the rebuilding phase takes hold, putting even more pressure on rental housing than there is already.
Nearby residents in Madras, Canon and Purchas Streets have been informed by city council staff of plans for this area but no timeline was supplied for the building of the units, which will happen on site.
Source: based mostly from a CCC letter sent to residents
