Queenstown Lakes District Council

Planning for the future

Lakes, mountains, sun, water, snow – and people, lots of them

The Queenstown lakes are a magnet for tourists, investors and escapers from the rat-race. It’s all good for the economy, but someone’s got to set some ground rules. Thankfully, Queenstown Lakes District Council has some good planners.

The Queenstown area is unique for its breath-taking beauty. Everyone, it seems, wants to be there to experience it. They arrive in their thousands. Some come for a holiday or just a weekend, and the numbers arriving for big events can create a huge ebb and flow effect on the population.

 

• Average day population (2006 estimate): 34,076
• Peak population (2006 estimate): 75,377
• Projected peak population (2016): 108,802
• Projected peak population (2026: 145,017.

Others want to stay for good, so they buy a house to live in, or rent it when they’re not there. Those wealthy enough buy more than one house and rent some out, or they buy a big block of land for peace and privacy. The permanent population has boomed, making it the fastest growing region in the country.

• Usually resident population (2006 Census): 22,959
• Projected population in 2016: 52,738
• Projected population in 2026: 74,374.

House and land prices have gone through the roof. The booming tourism industry is struggling to find young people to work in the restaurants, hotels and bars, but these people can’t afford to rent or buy.

The scenario was set several years ago for chaos unless growth was managed effectively.

Queenstown Lakes District Council recognised the problems. Through planning processes developed by staff, innovative changes to bylaws and the District Plan have provided a clear picture of the future.

One of the innovations has been a proposal to introduce an allocation of affordable housing into any new property developments. This will be explored through a Plan Change to the District Plan later in 2007, a first for New Zealand. Affordable housing is seen as being important for the future of the district, much the way a park would be for property developments in other areas of the country.
Queenstown Lakes has a general manager of strategy and planning, four senior policy developers and a junior policy developer, and it contracts out and manages much of its planning work.

Planners draft policy under various legislation, including Plan Changes under the Resource Management Act and by-laws under the Local Government Act. Policies for issues such as heritage and town centres are written to set a framework for decision-making by elected councillors.

Senior policy analyst Alyson Schuler says policy planners at QLDC need to have very good oral and written skills. They present their work to councillors, senior managers and the Environment Court, as well as to community members at public meetings.
“You will be balancing the needs of the community with expectations from developers and businesses who derive their income from development,” she says.

Alyson’s role is to manage and undertake Plan Changes to the District Plan. Projects she is working on are the analysis for two plan changes:

• the Kirimoko Block in Wanaka, which will re-zone rural land within the township boundaries for residential zoning; and
  
• the Frankton Flats Plan Change in Queenstown, which is a large mixed-use development next to the airport and existing industrial area.
  “I am also managing consultants working on another council plan change, a re-zoning exercise in Makarora, one of the district’s small communities.”
• Alyson also manages appeals to the District Plan.

Consultation and solid research have been the keys to planning success. The council relies on early discussion with its communities, which include the big tourist spots of Queenstown and Wanaka, but also smaller communities such as, Arrowtown, Kingston, Cardrona and Glenorchy.

Research into population projections is important. It is used by the council:

• As performance measures to better understand how well it is working toward achieving the Community Outcome of “sustainable growth management”.

To undertake strategic planning.

• To determine the need for more land to be zoned for particular purposes in a staged manner.
• To determine the consequences of growth on its key infrastructure (such as roading, sewage, and water systems) and to ensure that infrastructural development and improvements keep pace with projected growth.
• To determine the level of development contributions it needs to collect to ensure council services can keep pace with growth.
• To determine the projected demands for open space and community facilities.
• To lobby other agencies for improved services to the community (eg health, regional facilities, etc).
• To promote and facilitate high quality urban design, the council has established urban design panels in Queenstown and Wanaka. They provide providing expert advice to the council and to private developers on the urban design aspects of new development projects. The panel reviews all big urban projects undertaken by the council, and private developers can also be referred to the panels through the resource consent process.

Who is involved: Urban and environmental planners legal resource consent and monitoring asset engineers GIS communications.