Council responds to community on Wanaka Sports Facility

Work on the proposed Wanaka Sports Facility is continuing in response to the Wanaka community’s request for green field sites to be further considered, Queenstown Lakes District Council community services general manager Paul Wilson said.

Through the Annual Plan process, the majority of submitters on the sports facility expressed concern with the Wanaka Recreation Reserve as a location and pressed the Council to consider a ‘green fields’ option.

Mr Wilson will take an item to full Council at Wanaka, next Tuesday to update Council and the community on progress.

“In March the Council resolved a recommendation that green field options continue to be investigated. It also requested that a concept plan be developed for the Wanaka Recreation Reserve to help the council and the community better understand the implications of a development on that site,” Mr Wilson said.

The latter body of work had been undertaken and would be presented at the meeting, along with a physical model of how the showgrounds site would look if developed.

The last few months had also been spent in progressing the green fields investigation and in talking with developers and key stakeholders.

“We have a better understanding of how the showgrounds site could be developed but we need to still do further work to better understand what the implications and risks associated with developing a green field option are,” Mr Wilson said.

Green field considerations, which centred around the Three Parks area to the North of Wanaka were complicated by plan changes, potential appeals and infrastructure considerations.

The recommendation for Tuesday’s meeting would allow Mr Wilson and the General Manager of strategy and planning to work with two developers (Willowridge Developments Ltd and Ballantyne Investments Limited) to agree on options for the location of the facilities and prepare a draft agreement.

“That will enable Council to understand planning processes, development contributions, infrastructure and timing to assist with a final and informed decision,” Mr Wilson said.