Twenty-one years after the last community plan for Luggate, representatives of the town’s population of 600 or so, with the help of community advocacy group Shaping Our Future (SOF), has laid out a vision for how they’d like to see Luggate grow.

An ‘aspirational vision statement’ for Luggate, along with a series of recommendations to deliver that vision, was presented at last week’s Wānaka Upper Clutha Community Board (WUCCB) meeting, following 10 months of collaboration between the community and SOF.

“It’s long-term thinking,” Luggate Community Association (LCA) chair Rod Anderson told the Wānaka App. “It’s not doable in the next two or three years.”

“It’s basically to give a direction to the way the Luggate community is thinking, what sort of things they’d like to see happen,” he said, adding the LCA presented it to the WUCCB so “it’s in the back of their minds”.

Water was identified as the main challenge facing Luggate. IMAGE: Supplied

The recommendations relate to water infrastructure (identified as the major challenge facing the area), the state highway corridor, reserves, shops and services, tracks, environment, and heritage.

Read more: Luggate retail precinct plans progress

“The number one thing for us was water,” Rod said, adding that the issue was identified as a challenge “ahead of anything else”.

The report recommends that LCA meet urgently with Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) to “provide a compelling case” to bring the water scheme forward in the next QLDC Long Term Plan.

“I’m well aware that the council has umpteen projects, and just about everything has water problems but the big thing for us is it’s half way there. The bores are down, they just need to connect them up,” Rod said.

The vision statement imagines a family-friendly neighbourhood with tracks and services centred around the nature reserves and the historic Luggate flour mill; with traffic management and planting easing the impact of the main highway which dissects the township.

A ‘clip-on’ cycling path for the Red Bridge is one of the options to be explored in the plan. PHOTO: Wānaka App

It also recommends active lobbying by the LCA to develop a “road corridor landscape/traffic management plan” with the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, with the goal of safe access across the highway, and new speed limits.

Waka Kotahi maintenance of the Red Bridge is also to be discussed, as well as the possibility of a ‘clip on’ foot/bike path to enable safe access across the bridge.

The identification of services locals want to have available are also on the to-do list, as is development of reserve options and long term planning for a track network across Luggate to Wānaka, Cromwell, and the Pisa Range high country.

The Luggate community has identified a wish to maintain the quality of its dark sky (and will ask QLDC to ensure new developments have appropriate lighting control); it also wants solar generation where possible; and the preservation of heritage features, the report said. 

More than 100 people attended visioning workshops with SOF last winter, which informed the vision statement. 

Luggate currently has approximately 270 dwellings, and there is development capacity for almost 500 more, the report said.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App