If the amended proposed plan change for the Arrowtown boundary is approved by commissioners, up to 30 homes could be built beside decommissioned sewage ponds in Jopp St, a hearing was told yesterday.
The Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust wants to have Jopp St land owned by the Queenstown Lakes District Council designated within the Arrowtown boundary, trust chairman David Cole told commissioners Mike Garland, of Christchurch, and Andrew Henderson, of Dunedin, at the Athenaeum Hall, in Arrowtown.
The 3.68ha site is zoned as rural land and in 1977 was designated for sewage treatment works, before being decommissioned in 1995.
Addressing the second day of the Plan Change 29: Arrowtown Boundary hearing, Mr Cole said a community charette in 2003 found Jopp St would be suitable for residential development, with an initial proposal for 60 houses receiving positive support from Arrowtown residents.
The proposal was now for half the number of homes.
While 0.86ha of the site was "capped ponds" and classified as "contaminated" by the Otago Regional Council, the remaining 2.78ha of land was free from sludge.
If approved, 2000sq m would be set aside for a mulching facility, with the balance as reserve, open space and dwellings.
Mr Cole said the inclusion of Jopp St within the boundary would allow the development of the "comprehensive residential development" which could be lodged as a private plan change or resource consent.
The trust, a community-owned organisation which had about $8 million in assets "with little or no debt", had assisted 33 families in the past three years and was expecting to expand that to more than 50 during the next 12 to 15 months.
In the next five years, the trust aimed to have assisted 150 households, and Jopp St was a "crucial part of that."
"Ordinary" Queenstown families faced an "insurmountable barrier" in buying their first home, he said.
An entry level home at Lake Hayes Estate cost about $525,000, which required a deposit of more than $100,000, leaving a mortgage debt of about $420,000 - requiring about 55% of a household's gross annual income to service.
"The trust has more than 300 expressions of interest on its books . . .
They include teachers, nurses, police officers, chefs, line technicians, project managers, broadcasters, legal advisers and all the trades.
"They are the glue in our community.
If we can't meet their housing needs, we can't expect them to stay.
"As a community, we cannot expect the affordable problem to be solved by private developers. Collectively, we must all contribute to solve it."
Mr Cole said some of the houses would be sold to the open market, some preserved for rental and others retained as "affordable" through the trust's shared ownership project.
Open dialogue with the community would allay any fears of what may be developed on the site.
"If we don't seize the opportunity that vacant land like Jopp St presents and prefer to lock it up for unproductive purposes, it will presage a different and far more segregated solution down the track where this community is forced to zone and build cheap accommodation shelters for housing the essential workforce for tomorrow's Queenstown.
"None of us want to see that happen."
Queenstown Lakes District Council regulatory and corporate services general manager Roger Taylor said the council's submission was made in its corporate capacity as owner of the Jopp St land.
The council supported Plan Change 29, with the amendment to include Jopp St within the boundary.
Mr Taylor said use of the Jopp St land to include affordable residential development was consistent with council policies and the site was able to contribute to the proportionate Arrowtown demand for affordable housing.
Arrowtown Village Association secretary Gerard Hall said the association had lodged a neutral submission on the proposed boundary.
The hearing was adjourned yesterday for commissioners to deliberate.
It was expected to be several weeks before their decision was forwarded to the full council.
