Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) planners will consider whether Hāwea’s newly expanded urban boundary should be subject to more intensive zoning.

It was confirmed early last week that the Lake Hāwea urban boundary will be extended to Domain Road, more than doubling the size of the existing urban area. 

At a council meeting two days later, QLDC councillors endorsed an Urban Zoning Variation that could increase the height and density of some residential areas in Queenstown and Wānaka. 

QLDC planning policy manager Alyson Hutton asked councillors to allow time for the planning team to consider the zoning of the new ‘Lake Hāwea South’ in light of the expanded urban area.

“We do have to ensure that future zoning in Hāwea is not bespoke but is similar to the changes we are proposing to other residential zoning through this proposal today,” she said.

Councillors agreed that the planning team should consider the new Hāwea urban area.

The zoning changes endorsed by councillors for Wānaka and Queenstown at the meeting included adjustments to Lower Density Suburban Residential (LDSR) zoning to allow for building height up to 8m in most cases and changes to Medium Density Residential (MDR) zoning allowing for heights of 11m (+ 1m for pitched roofs).

The changes to MDR zoning would also allow for a wider range of residential housing types, like units and low-rise apartments. 

As QLDC senior planner Elias Mathee pointed out, the requirements for more intensive zoning have been “well signalled” by central government’s national policy statement on urban development (NPS-UD), which directs councils to remove some planning rules and plan for growth ‘both up and out’.

Elias said the planning team had put a lot of work into responding to the NPS-UD while taking into account “the local context”.

Any future recommendation to include Lake Hāwea South for the Urban Growth Variation will go to councillors for consideration at a future meeting.

PHOTO: Wānaka App