Special housing areas, Easter trading and car pooling were some of the matters dealt with by the new Queenstown Lakes District Council during its first meeting of the triennium.
The council, under Mayor Jim Boult, met in Queenstown yesterday for the first time after being sworn in last month. Before the councillors was a recommendation to amend its lead policy on special housing areas, with three key changes.
One which caused some debate was around the affordability criteria.
At the outset, Mr Boult reminded the council it was "probably the biggest issue facing our district at the present time".
"That is the ability for ordinary people living in our community — predominantly permanent residents, predominantly families — to get into houses.
"It is enormously important for us to get this right."
The councillors seemed to agree community housing should form at least 5% of a qualifying development, or a relative financial contribution be made, and that the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust should be the preferred provider of that housing.
But that did not preclude developers from presenting "innovative" solutions to the council, provided they had engaged with the trust.
However, the debate was largely focused on the difference between affordable housing and community housing, the trust having a special focus on providing the latter.
Cr Ella Lawton said community housing had a retention mechanism and covenants ensuring it remained affordable for future generations.
Affordable housing was affordable for only the original buyers.
Council chief executive Mike Theelen circulated a proposed replacement section for the "community housing" element of the lead policy, which repeatedly referred to "affordable housing".
It also stated at least 5% of any development, by value or by area, had to be "affordable development in the Queenstown Lakes context".
However, Cr Lawton took issue with this.
"It wasn’t about ensuring 5% is affordable. The whole thing should be affordable. It’s actually about 5% being community housing."
Mr Theelen said the price of the balance of an SHA would be market driven and to attempt to ensure it was all affordable was not practical.
Cr Lawton said, ultimately, the council wanted affordable housing for the community and, for some, home ownership was not an option at present.
"That retention mechanism [with community housing] ensures that as our community grows, the amount of housing we have [relative] to our community also continues to grow ... rather than more and more people being left behind and not being able to get on the ladder."
Ultimately, the council voted to adopt the amended policy, including a revised version of Mr Theelen’s community housing element in which the term affordable housing is replaced with community housing. The policy also stated while the council was "open to proposals" to address the issue of community housing through other mechanisms, it "retains a preference for the trust’s involvement".
The council also voted unanimously to proceed with its Easter Sunday shop trading policy, and put it out for public consultation.
Regulatory manager Lee Webster said it would mean the council became "enabling" with regard to Easter Sunday trading.
Over several years, through the annual plan process, the council had received submissions from businesses wanting to trade over Easter, but legislation had not allowed it.
That legislation had changed this year and gave councils the opportunity to develop and implement their own policies.
"[The policy] will provide the ability for businesses to trade on Easter Sunday and allow the business to determine if they do not wish to."
Councillors also unanimously voted to revise the amended car pooling scheme, focusing on ensuring each vehicle parked in a car pool space was carrying at least three people.
Infrastructure principal planner Tony Pickard said under the new system existing permits would be cancelled and up to 100 new permits issued. Under the new rules, at least three permits will have to be displayed at all times in the vehicle. Permits would only be granted to people living outside Queenstown, meaning those in Fernhill-Sunshine Bay, Queenstown Hill and Frankton Rd would not be eligible.
