There’s a new group in town, Wānaka Responsible Growth Advocates, and it has already made a 16.5 metre high mark on the CBD.

Group founders Mark Gray and Luke Snelling are responsible for a scaffolding on Brownston Street, which was erected last Friday (September 29) to make a point about the proposed Urban Intensification Variation (UIV).

Its height matches the maximum height which would be permitted for buildings in Wānaka’s CBD if the UIV - which proposes increases to building height and density regulations across several zones - is approved. 

Read more: Urban intensification: Growth ‘up and out’ proposed

Read more: ‘Confronting’ changes proposed for Wānaka CBD

“I think people really struggle to get in their head how high these buildings would be,” Mark said.

A Wānaka Responsible Growth Advocates website was set up as “an educational thing”, Mark said. “We put it together to help people with the submission process which was quite onerous.”

The highest point of the scaffolding (16.5 metres) is marked by a road cone.

Mark said since the scaffolding was erected he had spoken to around 100 people on Brownston Street about the UIV proposal. 

“The level of awareness was very low. Most people were completely unaware, and most of them were shocked,” he said.

Mark’s take is that intensification should take place on a ‘greenfields site’ like Three Parks.  

If intensification was directed to Three Parks, it would retain the character of Wānaka’s CBD and allow Upper Clutha residents to maintain their vision of how they wish to live in the resort town he said.

“I don’t feel like it’s necessarily NIMBYism,” Mark said. “It’s just logical sense.”

Upper Clutha Environmental Society (UCES) member Lincoln Howarth provided a different perspective.

Lincoln is supportive of the UIV, and he says if we want to plan for growth, we have to start now.

A 16.5m height limit in the Wānaka CBD would give landowners the opportunity to build to that height - it doesn’t mean they will, or that changes will happen overnight, he said. 

The Precinct is currently the highest building in Wānaka’s CBD: the frontage is eight metres high but the rear wall is 12 metres.

Meanwhile proposed changes adjacent to the CBD to create a medium density zone with a height limit of 11m plus 1m pitched roofs show that it’s “hot property,” Lincoln said. 

“People are gaining the right to do more with their property,” he said. “That area of town has been bought up over the last 25 years and it’s extremely desirable.”

Lincoln said he was supportive of growth at Three Parks - and he noted that increasing height and density requirements in the new subdivision was already part of the UIV. 

Endlessly limiting growth would have a raft of negative effects, from higher rates to “$10 flat whites”, stymying innovation, and pushing the workers that businesses need out of town, he said. 

“In Queenstown they’ve tried to put the workers out of sight out of mind, which is the root of some of the massive traffic problems. This is different to what Queenstown did and that’s great.”

Both Mark and Lincoln encourage people to spend time getting to understand the UIV proposal and consider making a submission.

QLDC spokesperson Sam White said more than 350 submissions on the UIV have been received by the council so far and “they continue to come in”. 

“All ratepayers received a letter or email which included a copy of the public notice for the proposal and links to the relevant webpage for more information,” he said, adding that the deadline for submissions was extended by two weeks with additional drop in sessions held.

People can find more information and make submissions on the QLDC website. Submissions close this Thursday (October 5). In the meantime, council duty policy planners are on-hand during office hours to respond to phone, email and in-person queries. 

PHOTOS: Wānaka App