The door has officially opened for more development on Ladies Mile but the Queenstown Lakes District Council is not unanimous in its decision.
There was division at yesterday's council meeting on whether to allow development in the area under special housing rules and whether to include the original land area in line with the public consultation, or a slightly reduced area, lowering the possible number of residential units from 2815 to 1957.
During a public forum before the meeting, the owner of that land, David Finlin, questioned the decision to remove it from the area to be considered without consultation.
``It appears there has been an internal decision to change the plan boundary.
``To be singled out as the only landowner ... to be removed ... at the very last minute [is] untenable and a complete U-turn on how the council undertook the consultation process to date.''
Mayor Jim Boult said further development of Ladies Mile ``does trouble me''.
However, he was also conscious of the need for more developable land in the district and if Ladies Mile was not included in the special housing area policy, landowners could seek their own resource consents for development ``which may not deliver the value to the community that the SHA process does''.
``It's a difficult decision.''
Cr Penny Clark was in favour of including the land as originally proposed and described it as a ``real opportunity for this town'', while Cr Ross McRobie said statistics indicated the district would need ``92% more dwellings than we've got now by 2045''.
``Taking 300 out now might not seem like a lot, but it's still a big number to take out... I'm not happy to have them taken out at this point.''
Cr John MacDonald, also chairman of the Mayoral Housing Taskforce, said it was ``absolutely essential'' for the council to approve Ladies Mile's inclusion because ``we need the houses and we need to do it quickly.''
Against were Crs Val Miller, Tony Hill, Scott Stevens and Craig Ferguson.
Cr Miller said community feedback had highlighted the value placed on the rural aspects of the area and felt there was enough development, planned or under way, at present which could have a ``significant impact'' on the real estate market.
``We have now been given the visual impact from seeing what the SHA on the other side of the road [Queenstown Country Club] will actually look like and it is significant. Personally, I still feel strongly against it.''
Meanwhile, Cr Stevens questioned the future of SHAs and targets agreed between the council and the Government under former housing minister Nick Smith.
The council had been working to meet the housing targets ``because Nick Smith said we had to, or, we agreed to his philosophy on that''.
``I think we should be controlling our growth, at our rate.''
QLDC planning and development general manager Tony Avery said although the targets had provided impetus for the council, ``we've also got a housing supply problem we need to deal with, irrespective of Housing Accord targets''.
The ministerial changes did not affect the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act.
Ultimately, the council voted to allow development in the area under special housing area rules.
Crs Miller, Hill, Stevens and Ferguson were opposed.
Mayor Jim Boult, Crs Clark, McRobie, MacDonald, Alexa Forbes and Quentin Smith voted in favour.
