Neighbourhood Plan Change District-wide Consultation

A proposed plan change aimed at protecting high density residential neighbourhoods in the Queenstown Lakes District town centres will be considered by the QLDC strategy committee next week, QLDC senior policy analyst Scott Figenshow said.

“The working party (Councillors Lyal Cocks, Mel Gazzard and Lex Perkins) has been working on a discussion document following strategy committee reviews in February and April. The final document - pending the committee’s approval - will be made widely available from next week,” Mr Figenshow said.

This week the council was focusing on flagging the proposed plan change with developers and major land owners.

“We have been beginning talks with some of the people who will be most affected by this plan change,” Mr Figenshow said.

The proposed plan change would identify areas in both Wanaka and Queenstown High Density Residential zones that preserve the mix of permanent residents and visitors around the heart of the town centres.

“The plan change would also ensure enough capacity within those zones to allow for future growth, both for visitor accommodation and residential uses,” Mr Figenshow said.

The discussion document had been carefully prepared to enable ratepayers in Wanaka and Queenstown to understand how the proposed plan change affected landowners in the central area.

“We also want to gauge the wider public view on this plan change, it’s really a plan change that calls for district-wide community input,” Mr Figenshow said.

If the committee approved consultation on the plan change, a summary brochure would be widely distributed at the end of next week and the discussion document would be available at council offices and on the council website www.qldc.govt.nz.

“Pending approval we will also go ahead with public drop-in sessions in Wanaka and Queenstown in two weeks time. We are really keen to get some strong engagement on this proposal and some good feedback before we consider moving ahead with the actual plan change process,” Mr Figenshow said.

If the plan change did advance then it would be formally notified and the public would have an opportunity to make submissions. But that would only occur after feedback from the discussion document, and a report back to the strategy committee at its September meeting.