Wānaka projects miss out in favour of Manawa and third Queenstown pool

There was bad news for Wānaka ratepayers today as Queenstown Lakes District councillors decided not to include a Wānaka arts centre or any significant short-term upgrade to sports fields in its new Long Term Plan (LTP).

Leading the discussion at a day long deliberation session on the LTP both mayor Glyn Lewers and chief executive Mike Theelen said there was no funding available for the arts centre for Wānaka being championed by a local trust as its plan “was not as developed as Project Manawa".

Project Manawa is a complex and highly unpopular $50 million plus project that virtually 100 percent of community submitters are opposed to due to what’s seen as high cost and high risk and its Queenstown CBD location.

Both Mayor Lewers and Mr Theelen praised the team behind the Wānaka project as being “very well organised” but Mayor Lewers questioned, “Have they done enough work on strategy?”.

Mr Theelen then added,  “To be brutal, the work that’s been done is not sufficient to justify making a funding decision”.

Mayor Lewers became involved in an exchange that was very close to being an argument with deputy mayor Quentin Smith when Councillor Smith said it was a “mistake” not to include the Wānaka arts centre project in the Long Term Plan.

Mayor Lewers said he heard nothing from the deputy mayor, or other Wānaka councillors, about the Wānaka arts centre during the eight month run up to the draft LTP being published and strongly objected to the “mistake” accusation.

In the end the consensus of the councillors was that they wanted to find a way to encourage the Wānaka arts centre trustees but there was simply no spare cash. Quentin Smith said he believed that it was important for the community to now be consulted on potential next steps for the arts centre project.

Things then got worse for Wānaka on two different fronts.

In agreeing to bringing forward funding for improvements to Wānaka sports fields the situation initially looked promising until councillor Niki Gladding suggested that this money only amounted to $100,000 in the short term plus, another $300,000 for nighttime lighting for an existing sports field.

QLDC sports and recreation manager Simon Battrick said that those using the sports field at night would “have to agree to work shifts” to manage both training sessions and actual sports matches at the same location.

Mr Battrick then outlined that millions of dollars would be spent on a new heating system for the Queenstown events centre swimming pool with more millions to be spent on new sports fields at the site of the Ladies Mile 'toxic house'.

Then Councillor Smith questioned Mr Battrick on another longer-term Queenstown sports expenditure item of $6 million.

Sports and recreation boss Simon Battrick. $6 million cost for designing a third swimming pool for Queenstown.

Mr Battrick said this was for the “design and project management” for a new Southern Corridor/Jacks Point swimming pool. He said that actual construction costs for what would be a third swimming pool for Queenstown will be another 80 percent on top of the $6 million figure, resulting in a total of between $25 and $30 million.

Mr Smith said that he thought $200,000 to $400,000 would be a more realistic figure for the pool design phase, not $6 million.

Most of the day though was spent on a bruising discussion around which ratepayers should pick up the tab for the Queenstown CBD street upgrades and $128 million 'road to nowhere' arterial road – stage one.

After more than two hours of debate the councillors settled on the proposed 65 percent/35 percent split between CBD ratepayers and Whakatipu basin ratepayers. The debate featured views by councillors that the claimed benefits of the arterial road and CBD upgrades were doubtful, including the 'benefit' that it had created higher property values. Some said the projects had resulted in a drop in property values because "nobody goes into the CBD anymore".

Councillor Melissa White told the meeting that the decision would mean a total rates rise of more than 20 percent for Lake Hayes Estate and Shotover Country residents.

Councillor Matt Wong expressed concern that the 65 percent/35 percent split would set a precedent for who pays for stages two and three of the arterial road. These extra stages have no NZTA funding and there is widespread community concern about the continuation of the road based on massive budget blowouts to date, as well as the uncertain purpose of stage one.

Many community members are expected to be concerned that both Project Manawa and further arterial road stages are being considered at all by the QLDC given current debt levels and future three waters funding requirements.

There was also bad news for Jack's Point and Hanley’s Farm residents pushing for a new cycle route (project A7) into Frankton. Following a stalling pf the route by NZTA the QLDC has no plans to step in and take the project over, as is the case with the Quail Rise/Jims Way bridge (project A2) over State Highway 6.

When Councillor Gladding expressed disappointment that the QLDC had “no plan” for the cycle routes Mayor Lewers accused her of being “unfair on council staff”.

A suggestion from Councillor Smith that the QLDC could use a similar mechanism as was used for the Wānaka “schools to pools” project, using funding from property developers, failed to gain any traction.

Council finance boss Stewart Burns was centre stage for much of the day, explaining that QLDC rate rises could be slightly higher than the forecast 15.6 percent - up to 15.8 percent - due to overall population growth being slightly lower than forecast across the district.

QLDC finance boss Stewart Burns - centre stage for much of the day.

He said this would hit Queenstown ratepayers hardest as population growth in Wānaka had been relatively higher at 4.6 percent than the Queenstown side of the hill at 2.7 percent. This meant that Wānaka and the Upper Clutha had more people to share the rates load.

The council chief executive also highlighted the fact that the QLDC was not in a position to offer significant funding to Wānaka Wastebusters but instead would be looking at “co-location” land sharing benefits.

The meeting was also told of a forecast $5 million price tag for interim parking facilities at the site of Project Manawa in Queenstown's Stanley Street.