Queenstown’s council opposed to ORC’s push on resort’s behalf
Queenstown’s council does not support Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) push for the resort to be a tier-one urban authority.
Council chief executive Mike Theelen tells Mountain Scene the move would require greater development, ultimately piling even more pressure on the town now and into the future.
He says getting to tier-one status is based on urban development rather than public transport funding, according to the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020.
‘‘On this basis, we’re comfortable with QLDC’s current status as a tier-two authority and do not support the district becoming tier one, which would force even greater density on existing and future communities.’’
The stance puts Queenstown’s council at odds with the regional council, which at a meeting last week narrowly voted for a motion to push for the resort to be considered a tier-one centre.
If successful, that will unlock new levels of transport and other infrastructure funding.
‘Tier one? No thanks’: Queenstown council CEO Mike Theelen
The motion was raised by regional councillor Michael Laws, who’s slamming the district council’s decision not to support it as ‘‘ridiculous’’.
‘‘They either want enhanced public transport or they don’t.
‘‘Thankfully, they’re not responsible for public transport, Otago Regional Council is,’’ Laws tells Scene.
The tier-one push is an absolute no-brainer for the resort, with its small rating base to enable ‘‘the huge infrastructure you require to support Queenstown being the jewel in the crown for New Zealand’s tourism industry’’, he says.
Central government’s ‘‘blown the budget on Covid, and the response to [it] and run out of money’’ to help with any funding for tier two centres.
‘‘Tier-one centres get first priority of scarce government resources,’’ Law says.
Theelen says council may be interested in further dialogue with the regional council ‘‘if urban development and public transport funding can be separated’’ in any bid for tier-one consideration.
‘‘We are seeking clarity on that from both ORC and Waka Kotahi NZTA.’’
Laws: Regional councillors ‘don’t understand their job’
Meantime, Laws says he was ‘‘absolutely stunned’’ his motion wasn’t unanimously supported with five councillors voting ‘no’ when he raised it at the regional council’s public and active transport committee last Thursday.
He contends regional councillors don’t understand they need to lobby central government to get things done.
‘‘The problem is, the Otago Regional Council has a history of simply not being political.
‘‘The councillors are not politicians … they don’t understand how the political process works.
‘‘Political processes have got [into] an even more activist space in the last 20 years, that if you don’t get in, make a public, political scene over something, nothing happens and you get ignored.
‘‘Lobbying’s become even more important these days.’’
Laws says he was ‘‘surprised’’ Alexa Forbes, Queenstown’s only resident on the regional council, was one of the ‘no’ voters.
‘‘You don’t like cars, you don’t like fossil fuel, you’ve been extolling the virtues of public transport, all the things that tier-one funding would be able to get you,’’ he says.
Forbes says she ‘‘agrees with the sentiment’’ of the resort becoming a tier-one centre, but voted against the motion because Queenstown’s council wasn’t involved in the decision to raise it.
‘‘We do public and active transport planning, future-planning with those partners [Queenstown and Dunedin councils].
“The one thing they utterly detest is us going ahead and doing anything without having talked to them about it.
‘‘We should not be making policy on the fly without those partners involved, that’s why I opposed it.’’
Theelen seems to agree.
‘‘As a matter of courtesy, any policy position that affects QLDC should be discussed with the council in the first instance.
‘‘Hence our view is that it would have been inappropriate for ORC to have adopted a position on this matter without further consultation with us, and we appreciate both the ORC chairperson and chief executive reaching out to us following the matter being raised at their meeting.’’
