A call for three community representatives for the new Queenstown Airport Liaison Committee is part of the Queenstown Lakes District Council's confident expectation the Queenstown Airport's noise management plan will be in place soon.
The committee is being set up in preparation for the Environment Court's expected final approval of Queenstown Airport's Plan Change 35, which expands the airport's noise boundaries to allow it to meet the anticipated growth of passenger numbers and aircraft movements to 2037.
The council is inviting nominations to fill three community representative positions on the nine-person committee, to be chaired by Queenstown lawyer Jane Taylor.
The other representatives will be appointed from the council, a scheduled airline, Airways Corporation, general aviation users and the Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC).
Committee members will be announced in October. They will finish the noise mitigation plan, which sets out how the airport will manage issues related to airport noise, then implement it.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Vanessa van Uden said the initiative made sure the community had a direct conduit into the processes surrounding change at the airport and the ability to understand and have input into change.
''The role of community representative on this committee will be about ensuring the QAC works consultatively and proactively with its neighbours,'' she said.
QAC chief executive Scot Paterson said the airport was growing fast, with more people travelling to Queenstown via the airport.
''We want to make sure we look after our neighbours as we keep growing.''
''It has been more than five years of extensive consultation and the establishment of the committee is the next step to get PC35 up and running and helping the people closest to the airport.''
