Council staff are working through more than 340 submissions on McDonald’s application to open a restaurant and drive-through on the outskirts of Wānaka.

Residents both for and against the divisive proposal had one month to make a public submission on the application before they closed last Friday (August 9).

A Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) spokesperson told the Wānaka App there was a fairly long series of steps the council must now go through before any decision is made.

For now, QLDC “can’t confirm a specific date on any decision”, he said.

It is likely there will be a hearing on the McDonald’s application, the spokesperson said, so the next steps for the council include preparing a report which will summarise “the submissions received, the proposal, an assessment of the effects and the relevant objectives and policies of the district plan”.

From there, QLDC will set the hearing date, appoint independent commissioners and hold the hearing.

A final decision won’t be made until after post-hearing deliberations by the commissioners.

McDonald’s Restaurants NZ’s application proposes a 445m2 restaurant at its 0.3 hectare, rural-zoned site at 237 Wānaka-Luggate Highway (just off the SH6/SH84 roundabout).

News of the company’s plan for a Wānaka restaurant, which application documents say would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, became public in November 2023.

The plan has attracted significant public attention and thousands of people signed an online petition opposing it.

But the number of people who made formal submissions on the application process, at 342, was “high, but not atypical”, the QLDC spokesperson said.

Public submissions have shown a wide variety of opinions on the proposal.

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All submissions are publicly available here.

IMAGE: QLDC