Prime Minister John Key has poured cold water on the Christchurch mayor's ambitions to regain control of the earthquake-hit city's rebuild.
The central city demolition and rebuild is being controlled by government agency the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA).
Bob Parker says he believes the authority is due to be disbanded in three years and told Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon programme on Friday the rollout of the Government's new central city plan should be driven by the Christchurch City Council and the community before then.
Mr Parker said the council provides "an enormous amount of the intellectual horsepower" in the Christchurch Central Development Unit.
"It's clear to me now that it's time for us to much more closely integrate these processes."
However, Mr Key said on Friday this is unlikely to happen.
"That new blueprint and the new CBD has very widespread support, including from the council. So in reality, we're going to have to continue to work with Christchurch I think for a very long period of time.
"The scale of investment, the size of what we're doing is large, so we'll work very constructively with them. But how long CERA actually lasts as an organisation, I don't know. It could last longer than we initially thought."
Mr Key said the existence of the authority allows actions to be taken more quickly.
Meanwhile, Bob Parker confirmed that he intends to stand for mayor again in the next local body elections in October 2013.
