Tweaks to council’s Ten Year Plan have added funding for a youth and community facility for Wanaka, fast-tracked active transport, and put a bigger emphasis on climate change mitigation. 

The changes were made following community consultation and councillors will have the opportunity to sign them off at a Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) meeting next week (June 30). 

Investment in active travel networks for Wanaka will be accelerated, bringing forward the design and construction of the ‘Wanaka Pool to School Active Travel’ route to year two ($2M) and year three ($3M). 

Work on Wanaka’s Pool to School route will now begin in 2022-23 (it was planned to start in 2024-25 at the earliest) and it will be funded solely by the QLDC rather than joint funding with the New Zealand Transport Agency.

To the relief of many local community groups, funding has been set aside to repurpose Wanaka’s former Mitre 10 site in Anderson Heights as a shared youth and community centre.

QLDC sport and recreation manager Simon Battrick said council recognised “this was an opportunity too good to let slip by”.

Funding has been proposed for a youth and community facility in Wanaka’s former Mitre 10 building. PHOTO: Wanaka App

Subject to successful negotiations, this building will be leased for a 10-year period, providing a home for a number of community groups and a base for a range of QLDC sport and recreation programmes.

Active Transport Wanaka spokesperson Simon Telfer told the Wanaka App the group was “thrilled” with the recommendation to bring forward investment in Wanaka’s urban cycle network.

“The Schools to Pool route will be the backbone of the cycle network, not only physically connecting all four schools, but symbolically bringing all school children together too. This particular separated cycleway has always been the community’s priority,” he said.

Simon noted that more than 130 people submitted in favour of active transport getting a higher priority in the Ten Year Plan, and he thanked those who had supported the “community effort”.

QLDC corporate services general manager Meaghan Miller said key themes from the submissions included council increasing its investment in climate action, a clear appetite for more active transport sooner, and provision of more community facilities.

Investment in arts and culture was also a theme in the submissions, and QLDC community services general manager Thunes Cloete said “there was interest in the allocation of a $51M provision for performing arts facilities”.

This includes a performing arts centre for Queenstown but Thunes also signalled the desire to consult on a facility for Wanaka.

“The current intent for Wanaka would be to begin a process of needs assessment to consider what type of new facility might be required before understanding what needs to be allowed for in future planning cycles. However, council has confidence that there is a high likelihood that philanthropic funding will be available and envisages that this will support proposals for both towns to proceed,” he said.

Other key changes to the LTP are the provision of additional resources in QLDC’s climate action team, including an additional $200k to the operational budget and an additional team member in year one.

The proposed changes to the plan would affect the final rates increase, QLDC finance, legal and regulatory general manager Stewart Burns said. The new rate to be put to council is now an average of 5.45 per cent this financial year (from July 1 2021 - June 30 2022) - up from the average 4.56 per cent increase originally signalled in the draft plan. 

The council received 504 submissions to the draft plan from individuals, groups, and organisations across the district during the March-April consultation period, and 82 people spoke to councillors at hearings in Wanaka and Queenstown.

Councillors will be asked to adopt the final 2021-2031 Ten Year Plan at a meeting next Wednesday (June 30).