Arrowtown’s challenges and aspirations have been brought into sharp focus following an update to the village’s long-term community vision document.
A draft of the ‘Arrowtown community visioning report 2022’, revised from the 2017 report by a Shaping Our Future-facilitated taskforce, reveals the village boundary, housing availability, and energy-efficient heating in homes are some of the key issues the community want to see addressed in the coming decades.
Based on data from a 2015 community forum, the 2017 report was due an update to ‘‘fit the current views of the community’’ given ‘‘the social climate in the Whakatipu has changed … following Covid-19 impacts,’’ Arrowtown Village Association (AVA) chair Susan Rowley says.
While the draft confirms the original ‘pillars’ of heritage, character, community and environment are still relevant, growth is now an ‘‘over-riding issue, especially with the potential expansion on the western boundary’’ of Arrowtown, Rowley says.
Updated recommendations were ranked in order of importance when the draft was presented at a public work shop last week, and coming out in top priority was ensuring the current Arrowtown urban boundary is maintained and protected.
This was followed by preserving the village’s heritage through recommending a Queenstown council staffer hold the heritage portfolio, and then the need for a village-wide planting strategy to maintain the presence of character trees and accommodate native species.
Other key changes included greater emphasis on both affordable housing — disincentivising empty homes and the short-term letting of whole homes — and reducing the village’s environmental footprint through waste management and energy efficiency.
Rowley says wording has also been refined to enable future AVA committees to use the report in submissions to the annual plan.
‘‘One of the significant challenges for us is that, despite the immense community effort in compiling these community visionary documents, council planners only use them as ‘reference documents’ and are not bound by a community viewpoint.’’
She says it’ll be up to the incoming AVA committee in October to decide on next steps.
Public feedback can still be submitted to the AVA at [email protected] until noon on October 17.