Pressures arising from population growth are having consequences usually regarded as ‘‘big city issues'', the district's legal counsel, James Winchester, says.
Mr Winchester was presenting an overview of the council's proposed district plan (PDP) on the first day of hearings in Queenstown. The district was experiencing major housing supply and affordability issues at a time when the majority of residents did not have ‘‘big city incomes'', he said.
Its population growth was being driven by the tourism sector, which was based on the district's special natural environment.
This was creating ‘‘significant resource management tensions and challenges that require careful management''.
The proposed district plan (PDP) aimed to respond to these challenges by taking a ‘‘strong and directive regulatory approach'' in the cases of urban development and landscape, with a ‘‘more flexible and permissive approach'' in other cases, such as provision for higher density development in particular areas.
The submission was the opening salvo in an expected eight months of hearings on the first stage of the review of the district plan, a document that lays out the framework for council planning in the next decade.
It was heard by a panel consisting of Denis Nugent (chairman), Trevor Robinson, Mark St Clair, Yvette Couch-Lewis, Cath Gilmour and Lyal Cocks.
The council notified the first stage of the proposed district plan last August.
Mr Winchester's evidence included a summary of the PDP's strategic direction chapter, which sets out seven specific goals for the district.
Among those goals were the management of urban growth, the proposed introduction of urban growth boundaries (UGB) for Queenstown and Wanaka, and the continuation of the existing Arrowtown UGB.
The council's approach, as laid out in the PDP's urban development chapter, was to ‘‘direct future urban development within these UGBs and also to encourage intensified development within certain areas within these boundaries''.
Mr Winchester was followed by urban design consultant Clinton Bird, who gave evidence about the threat posed by urban sprawl.
Mr Bird said that from an urban design perspective, the district's outstanding natural landscapes and rapid population growth were at ‘‘loggerheads''.
UGBs would foster a clearer distinction between the urban townscapes of Queenstown, Wanaka and Arrowtown and their surrounding natural landscapes.
Insight Economics managing director Fraser Colegrave said his firm forecast the district's population to grow by 3.4% per annum for the next 20 years.
The hearing continues today.
