Land considered for affordable housing

 The potential to develop community housing on two key council-owned sites in Arrowtown and Wanaka has been flagged in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Queenstown Lakes District Council and the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust, QLDC senior policy analyst-housing Scott Figenshow said.


The memorandum would be considered for approval by the council on Friday, September 28.


Sites on Jopp Street (old Arrowtown ponds) and Kings Drive (Scurr Heights), Wanaka have been identified by the QLDC finance, audit, property and corporate committee as suitable development sites for the residential market, including affordable housing units.


“What we have are two areas of council-owned land that could prove ideal for the first affordable housing in the district on council-owned land, subject to very wide and intensive community consultation,” Mr Figenshow said.


It’s the intention of the community housing trust and council to ensure affordable housing is peppered throughout any residential development. Both the Wanaka and Arrowtown sites would be considered with the addition of other market-rate housing.


“The trust highlighted the potential for both sites and asked that the council consider how that could evolve, which is covered in the MOU,” he said.


The proposed adoption of the MOU would take the community one step further in the delivery of affordable housing, however the final decision would rest with full council in the future.


In the case of Jopp Street, it would require a plan change and for both the Arrowtown and Wanaka sites, resource consent would be required.


“This is very much the beginning stage. If the recommendation meets with council approval one of the key things for the trust will be to develop a more detailed proposal and commence consultation with neighbouring residents,” Mr Figenshow said.


If we get buy in from the communities, potentially we could see this development go ahead in the next year, beginning in Wanaka.


Meanwhile, the full council would also be asked to adopt a recommendation that council act as guarantor of the trust’s loan from Housing New Zealand for $2 million, announced in July.


“This is a significant milestone in commencing the trust’s shared ownership scheme which would enable up to 40 shared equity home purchases,” trust chairman David Cole said.


The ownership scheme was one of several tools that the trust had to enable home ownership in the district.


The trust hoped to confirm further details of the shared ownership scheme before year’s end.