Queenstown Lakes District Council is grappling with growth issues and the need to upgrade infrastructure, in particular through the work-streams of Wakatipu Way To Go, a consortium formed by Otago Regional Council, QLDC and NZ Transport Agency.

KPCA was represented at working group meetings to consider the business case for WWTG Lake Wakatipu Public Ferry Transport. This is essentially  about whether a ferry operation with some level of public investment would be viable over the long term given combinations of route options, infrastructure upgrades and the desire to integrate services with the wider public transport network. It takes into account the existing private ferry operator currently running an hourly service on Frankton Arm. Both the Hilton and Bay View pier remain integral to any Frankton Arm to Queenstown Bay route. We advocated strongly for fares to match the $2 bus fare, more frequent services and integrated ticketing.

In February 2020 David Mayhew presented an oral submission on behalf of KPCA regarding the Otago Regional Public Transport Plan in support of a proposed variation to allow consideration of a ferry service and in May 2021 a submission was made on Otago Regional Council’s Public Transport Plan 2021 – 2031.

KPCA made a submission on possible cycleways for commuters as part of the WWTG Active Travel Network, dealing in particular with the concern about using the existing trail for high speed electric cycles, skateboards and scooters.

Submission on “Way to go”

A topic which came to a head during COVID-19  Level 4 lockdown was a clash of interests over use of the trail by walkers and cyclists.  This has always been inherent in the use of the trail, but the growth in use during lockdown saw many complaints about a lack of regard for the safety of walkers, particularly the young and the old.  KPCA raised this with Council which caused a bit of a stir: see our Website Blogs of 6 and 7 April 2020: https://kelvinpeninsula.org/home-kpca/kpca-advocacy-and-news-posts/.   We asked for residents’ comments (via our contact list) and provided the feedback to Council.

The Frankton Masterplan will have a direct impact on Peninsula dwellers. KPCA considers that the future development of Frankton cannot be viewed in isolation from the development of other areas of the Wakatipu, including the Peninsula. What is required is a comprehensive long-term strategy for the use of our geographically constrained space in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner: in other words a spatial plan. The Frankton Masterplan could then be sensibly reviewed in that context. In saying this, we had in mind the wider spatial plan promised as part of the Visitor Levy funded infrastructure developments, involving both Council and central government.

KPCA opposed the Council’s application to discharge wastewater overflow into our lakes and rivers for the next 35 years. Queenstown Bay, Frankton Bay and Lake Hayes are three of the areas most likely to be impacted should this consent be given.  Click here for the submission

A concept plan for the landscaping of the Park was launched at our AGM in March 2020.  We have provided the Landscape Designer, Katie Deans, with an outline of the general principles we think should apply and some specific thoughts on facilities needed as part of the redevelopment following the felling of the pine forest

The long awaited draft Spatial Plan has been released for public viewing.

The Plan states it, “provides a longterm framework for managing growth. It directs growth in a way that will make positive changes to the environment, housing, access to jobs and opportunities, the wellbeing of the community and the experience of visitors. It recognises that solving these challenges will require central and local government working together with the community and private sector.” Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, “growth is expected to return, and the number of residents, jobs and visitors will approximately double over the next 30 years, requiring about 17,000 new homes in the area” (my emphasis).

This is the context in which government designated that the Queenstown Lakes should form part of the Urban Growth Agenda, requiring spatial planning.  The result is the Whaiora Grow Well Partnership, a new Urban Growth Partnership between government, Kāi Tahu, and the Queenstown Lakes District Council.

The Plan reviews the context, highlighting the constraints and challenges posed by growth.  Its starting point is the status quo and the various developmental plans already prepared or in the pipeline.  It usefully provides a conceptual framework to pull those disparate pieces of work together into a coherent plan.

Where it falls short, however, is in not thinking outside the box.  For example, the recent Town Centre and Frankton Masterplans are treated as key inputs (both plans were pre-2020, pre-COVID); the Strategies described and the Priority initiatives to be advanced by the partnership’s joint work programme take the detail of the Masterplans as a given.  No alternative is offered: where is the ‘reset’?

Similarly, on our favourite topic, Airport growth, the Spatial Plan assumes that both Wanaka and Queenstown Airports will remain in their existing locations.  The possible development of a Tarras airport is simply treated as highlighting the commercial interest in the development and delivery of capacity to serve the wider region.  No attempt is made to evaluate the implications of potential alternative land use of Frankton Flats which might have been expected of a Spatial Plan with a 2050 horizon.

As for the growth in demand for commercial air services, the Plan simply says this “will continue as Queenstown Lakes and the wider region continues to develop, and it is important that the level of service continues to support this.”  So, the Queenstown Airport Corporation’s demand-led model is left untouched.  (In other words, the airlines will determine growth in passenger numbers.) Again, no ‘reset’.

None of the 108 pages of the Plan quells the concern that allowing for a doubling in the “number of residents, jobs and visitors … over the next 30 years, requiring about 17,000 new homes in the area” is compatible with the Queenstown Lakes remaining both an iconic destination (a central part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s tourism offering) and a highly sought-after location as a place to live.  Is such growth environmentally sustainable, both now and in the face of future imperatives of the climate emergency?

View KPCA’s submission here.

QLDC has been reviewing its representation arrangements – the number of councillors and the way they are elected. An advisory group produced a report which was considered by the full Council at the end of June this year. The main issue debated at that meeting was the fate of the single-seat Arrowtown Ward. But buried in the detail was the fate of Kelvin Peninsula.

The Advisory Group recommended dividing representation of the current Queenstown-Wakatipu Ward into two electoral wards, the boundary between them to follow the line of the Shotover River and the eastern boundary of the lower part of Lake Wakatipu. The Peninsula was considered to fall within the lower part of the Lake and therefore in the proposed new Kawarau Ward; but the rest of the Frankton Arm communities would be in the new Whakatipu Ward.

KPCA objected to this result and the Council accepted our argument that we should remain aligned with the Frankton Arm communities.

In the Review now out for public consultation, the proposed boundary follows the same line of the Shotover River and the eastern boundary of the lower part of Lake Wakatipu, but with a ‘diversion’ to include Kelvin Peninsula in the Whakatipu Ward. We have made a submission to QLDC in support of this Representation proposal.