There needs to be a date for the completion of a parking management plan for Wānaka, and it should not be left to “drift”, Wānaka Upper Clutha Community Board (WUCCB) chair Simon Telfer has told council staffers.

Simon said he expected that progress on a parking management plan would be “far more advanced”.

“This has been drifting a long time,” he told Queenstown Lakes District Council property & infrastructure general manager Tony Avery during an infrastructure update at last week’s WUCCB meeting (Thursday March 27).

The update described a parking management plan as “50 percent complete”.

“Without a date, we feel like it’s going to keep drifting and drifting. We started this process, we created expectations, we invested in that consultancy, they’ve done the foundational work,” Simon said. 

“Other things we’ve been discussing as a community always seem to hinge on parking management,” he said, citing town centre evolution and various challenges at Stoney Creek.

Community board chair Simon Telfer. PHOTO: Jeannine Tuffin

Simon also said work undertaken by consultants on parking in Wānaka a year ago was done at the wrong time (during school holidays), the data is getting old and the work may have to be repeated.

Tony Avery said council staffers were working on the strategy guidelines to bring back to the council and community board.

“It will be interesting to see if there’s any appetite for changes in the current parking arrangement [in Wānaka], introducing fees anywhere, time limits, those sorts of things,” he said.

Council was “struggling a bit with the current resources” needed to complete the work, Tony said.

A draft plan by an independent, volunteer-run group (Heart of Wānaka) in 2023 identified the need for parking in the CBD to support local businesses, and free all day parking for workers outside the CBD. 

QLDC said at the time its staff would use the plan as “reference alongside our existing and planned work in this space”.

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