Queenstown Lakes district councillor Cath Gilmour says the Government's extension of special housing area (SHA) legislation gives the next council the ability to negotiate a new housing accord and rewrite its lead policy.
Cr Gilmour, who is portfolio leader for planning and development, said the council's lead policy had been written under a tight deadline before the 2014 national election.
''We fought very hard to get the lead policy we've got, but it has proven to not be strong enough to allow us as a community to actually get the best result.''
She wanted a new lead policy developed that ensured SHAs fitted into the landscape and existing infrastructure network instead of giving developers a ''shortcut through the system''.
The council would also have an opportunity to renegotiate its housing accord when it expired next year. She wanted a mechanism included that ensured affordable houses developed within SHAs remained affordable after their original owners sold them.
Cr Gilmour said she was confident the next council would appreciate the Wakatipu landscape was its biggest asset, and protecting it from sporadic housing development was ''core business and good governance''.
The Government announced on Monday it would extend its special housing legislation for another three years.
It was due to expire next Friday.
Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith said the extension was needed because house prices continued to rise and the supply of housing continued to lag behind demand.
Existing housing accords between the Government and councils would not automatically be extended, but could be renegotiated if both parties deemed it necessary.
The law changes mean that SHAs approved by the Government after September 16 last year will be cancelled within 12 months of their establishment if the developer has not lodged resource consent applications.
New SHAs will have 12 months from establishment to lodge consents.
