A stream, native wetlands, lawns and skateboards proposed for new Cathedral Square in Christchurch

Bold new plans for Christchurch's earthquake cracked Cathedral Square include a stream, native wetlands, lawns, and possibly a skateboard friendly zone.

Regenerate Christchurch's proposals for the long-awaited square revamp have been released today, and invite public feedback.

The draft plans divide Cathedral Square into three inter-connecting places - Cathedral Gardens, the Library Plaza, and Post Office Place - each with its own unique features.

The most striking feature is the introduction of water to the city's central public space.

"We're going to use water as a metaphor and as a narrative that weaves right through the space and round behind the cathedral and out to the library," says James Lunday, general manager of strategy and regeneration planning, and a key architect of the new plan.

Lunday, a Scotsman who has worked in Christchurch for 20 years, says many of the ideas put forward were generated by residents via Share an Idea, market research and consultation with an 18-member public focus group.

The draft proposal shows a restored ChristChurch Cathedral but Lunday is keen to stress it is there "for the purpose of this exercise".

To the south of the quake-crippled cathedral that is mired in debate over whether to rebuild or replace it, bordered by the Millennium Hotel and the future Spark site, there are plans for a large green space - Cathedral Gardens.

"There'll be a lawn here for people to come for picnics, for children to play, the water will be a feature that they can enjoy and that water will have native landscape and wetlands with it," said Lunday.

The current diversion of Colombo St around the cathedral will be removed and the street re-aligned to run as it originally did, past the cathedral itself, with traffic limited to trams and vehicles visiting the area.

The new city library, currently under construction, gets its own plaza, with a focus on attracting young people to the area and could be a "skateboard friendly" zone.

With the cenotaph also in the plaza, the area will be able to host remembrance services.

Lunday says he is aware new buildings encroaching on to the public square could be a much-debated aspect of the new design.

"Building in the square is controversial, I acknowledge that," he said.

"If we build on public land we control what uses go in it. We're suggesting that we create buildings here that have the ability to take cultural, arts, academic uses into them and bring activity to the events square during the day and night."

The purpose-built events square would be known as Post Office Place.

"This is the fiesta square - let's get a bit of South American and Spanish in us and have fun," Lunday said.

It's not clear yet how much the development would cost and who would pay for it.

Regenerate Christchurch chief executive Ivan Iafeta says a business case has yet to be developed.

"Once we understand what people want to see in the centre of the city, then we'll develop the business case that identifies the funding that will be required and those potential funding streams," he said.

"Cities are often defined by the quality of their centre, and what it offers. We want to catalyse improvements to the area."

The public is now being asked to provide feedback by August 21 to engage.regeneratechristchurch.nz.