It’s only taken four years but stage two of the Wanaka Lakefront Development Plan, opposite Pembroke Park, has reached the final design milestone.

On Thursday (December 3), the Wanaka Community Board approved the community’s preferred option for the foreshore development and car parking design, and agreed that the approved final design plans for stage two can be implemented.

The approved stage two plan, with a budget of $2.8M, will establish right angle car parking on the northern side of Ardmore Street looking up the lake, a four metre wide promenade, a relocated Millennium Path with new tiles, natural garden spaces and more trees and seating.

The recommended plans have been tweaked slightly following feedback from the community; the feature gardens have been redefined into ‘natural spaces’ with low lying gardens and feature trees; parking on Ardmore Street has been reduced to only 120 parks in order to increase viewing shafts to between eight to 10 metres; and the parks specifically allocated to campervans facing the lake have been removed - instead council will consider signage directing campervans to a few parallel parks on McDougall Street beside Pembroke Park.

The plan indicates the general arrangement for stage two of Wanaka’s foreshore development opposite Pembroke Park. PHOTO: QLDC

A four cubicle toilet block has also been added on the foreshore near Dungarvon Street and there will be more trees and spaces for sitting and lounging.

The position of the Millennium tiles appears on the plan to mimic their current location immediately adjacent to the sealed pathway, and the tiles will stretch almost the full length of the foreshore between McDougall and Dungarvon Streets.

While the board’s decision was unanimous it did engender some debate between elected members who raised concerns about view shafts, campervan parking, seating and artificial turf.

New Millennium Path tiles will be laid beside the promenade. PHOTO: Wanaka App

Some of the debate was sparked during public forum by local resident Alan Richardson who raised the issue of parked vehicles potentially blocking the view shaft up the lake in the current design. He has worked in the tourism industry for several years and said he frequently drives guests along Ardmore Street to enjoy the view up the lake and he fears “it will be obliterated”.

He suggested instead the WCB should modify the plan to replace some of the parking with “10 minute drop-off zones” allowing people to still access the foreshore but not park there all day. 

QLDC councillor Quentin Smith also questioned the car parking provisions, saying he would be comfortable with a further reduction in car parking to only 100 car parks if it resulted in wider viewing corridors.

WCB member Ed Taylor agreed, but added there needed to be a fair compromise as “we do still need to provide parking in town”.

Concerned that proposed suggestions to further amend parking and view shafts would delay the project further, WCB member Jude Battson spoke out. 

“I thought as a team we had worked through this to get to this point,” she said, referring to the lengthy public consultation and multiple plans on this stage of the development since the concept of the Lakefront Development Plan was first adopted in 2016.

Deputy mayor Calum Macleod agreed, saying the board had already been through almost every iteration conceivable to get to this point.

“This is the balance, the compromise we’re looking for” and increasing viewshafts is just “tinkering around the edges”, he said. 

Calum added he thought the provision for seating “sparse”, and councillor Niamh Shaw agreed, adding that more mobility parking was required but these suggestions could be considered in the final design plan rather than the delay the process towards implementation any further.

The final detailed design plans still need to be signed off by a QLDC general manager and the WCB chair Barry Bruce. Barry is working with the Millennium Path Working Group, which has yet to propose its preferences for the new tiles’ content.