Financial incentives and penalties may be used to get unkempt lots tidied up in the city centre.
The city council has received numerous complaints from businesses, residents and visitors about unsightly or overgrown sections in the CBD since the Canterbury earthquakes began more than 11 years ago.
Council spokesperson Leah Scales said it was proposing to charge landowners four times their regular rates if the land was not being used or improved.
Scales said the scheme would work two ways, allowing those who kept their sites tidy to apply for a rates reduction.
"Over the past 18 months, 3.9 hectares of vacant central city land has been developed - that is the equivalent of about four full size rugby pitches. Despite the challenges created by Covid-19, confidence in our central city is growing and there is a lot of development occurring.
"However, there are still some pockets of poorly maintained vacant land that are impacting negatively on people's perceptions of the area."
She said during consultation on last year's Long Term Plan 2021-31, there was strong support for the concept of using financial tools - including rates - to bring about improvements to those sites.
"At its core, it's about making things fairer. Vacant land in the central city benefits from the ratepayer-funded work the council does - well-maintained roads and footpaths, facilities, parks, amenities - which make all of it a more attractive prospect for development and more valuable.
"Vacant land by its nature has a lower capital value, and so the general rates set on vacant land are low."
Scales said the new scheme would help "even the scales".
Central city infrastructure is planned around how vacant land could be developed, so landowners need to pay their fair share of these costs, she said.
The proposal is open for public consultation and feedback until 18 April.
Last month, the council said a list of 30 central city buildings left derelict since the 2011 earthquake has been reduced to 19, and good progress was being made on all but three sites.
