Mother-of-two Kim Thomas is pleased her family can "move on" after the zoning of her Christchurch home changed from green to red.

Thomas is one of about 100 property owners who saw their zoning decision change after appeal.

Her home was one of six that remained green in her Dallington cul-de-sac, even though her neighbours had been zoned red.

Thomas is pleased that she and her partner will be able to raise their two young children away from the rutted and dusty roads of the residential red zone.

Thomas was told of the zone change in a phone call from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority on Thursday.

"It was great. I was a little bit stunned, though," she said. "I felt really relieved and quite excited at the possibilities for us. It means we are able to move on and make decisions about where we want to live and what we want to do.

"We always felt it was crazy that our neighbours were red-zoned and we were green."

Thomas is keen to raise her 3-year-old and 8-month-old daughters in a better environment.

"The sense of community has been ripped out of our part of Dallington. It is pretty grim. It a sad place to live. It is not a great place to have two little kids," she said.

"There is always dust on the street, and I worried about the impact of that on the girls. I'm glad they haven't been sick this winter.

"You want to take them out for a walk, but the roads are so silty and potholed that you can't because it is so unpleasant."

Kevin de Roo's New Brighton home was red-zoned yesterday, although he had not appealed against the original green zone.

"We were told that [Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee] doesn't change his mind, but he does," he said.

"I was very relieved because it would have taken a lot of remediation to make our land right. We were worried about how much it would cost to rebuild the house and fix the land. We love this area, but we can see the damage around us. "

Peter Midgley is one of 28 people who appealed against red zoning at Kairaki Beach.

The zoning remained red in the review decision announced yesterday.

"We are bitterly disappointed," Midgley said.

"This looks like the last gasp for us. A number of people will not take the offer and will stay here at the beach.

"This is very frustrating when half of the community wants to stay. This is a unique place to live and people love it here."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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