A footpath is likely to be widened on Queenstown's waterfront, with the permanent loss of 15 car parks.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council has set aside $250,000 in its 2016-17 annual plan to widen the footpath along Marine Parade opposite Eichardt's Private Hotel and a Skyline Enterprises building now under construction.
At a special meeting in the resort yesterday, councillors gave their approval for staff to negotiate with Skyline to ensure the project could be completed without the council exceeding the budgeted amount.
The footpath would be widened to 6.5m to improve access for pedestrians and cyclists, but at the cost of 15 angle parks.
Construction of the $6million Skyline building, on the corner of Marine Parade and Church St, means the parks are already out of action.
Cr Scott Stevens said the loss of the parking spaces should have been mentioned in the staff report as a disadvantage of the preferred option.
Mayor Vanessa van Uden said the council had committed itself to maintaining the overall number of parks in the central business district.
If the project went ahead, the council would specify where the lost car parks would be made up for elsewhere in the CBD.
In his report, council project manager Andrew Timms said Skyline had to raise the footpath and road levels outside its new building to satisfy current flood height levels.
The council would save money by undertaking the footpath-widening project at the same time.● Earlier in the meeting, councillors needed only 10 minutes to approve a consultation document for the council's 2016-17 annual plan.
They signed off an overall rates increase in 2016-17 of 2.56%, lower than the forecast 3.27%.
Online feedback on the annual plan starts today. The council is asking the public to approve several major variations to its long-term plan.
That includes a total of nearly $1million for a transport business case to ease traffic flows, investigation of a new council headquarters in the resort and partly funding putting power lines underground along Ladies Mile.
Not up for consultation are the acceleration of a $23.6million upgrade of Queenstown's sewerage system, an earlier opening of the $12.3million Wanaka Pool, and a doubling of its budget for the district plan review.
A guide to the annual plan will be delivered to ratepayers from next week. Submissions to the plan close on April 29.
