Making construction easier

Building in the Meadow Park area near Arrowtown should become easier and cheaper after the Queenstown Lakes District Council strategy committee accepted a report for new provisions on the town's entrance.

The Meadow Park special zone covers 42.5ha, including Feehly's Hill just west of Arrowtown and next to both Millbrook and Butel Park. On Tuesday, the council's senior policy analyst, Blair Devlin, presented a report which sought to change building consent provisions on the land for the district plan, which is due for its 10-year review.

While Butel Park is almost fully developed, the Meadow Park area has remained largely vacant since it became a ''special zone''.

The land is primarily for low residential activity and adjoins Arrowtown's industrial area.

Tuesday's report sought to change this restriction to ''residential zoning'', which would mean those building for residential purposes need not apply for resource consents, he said.

''We want to simplify and streamline the district plan.''

As it stands, a resource consent would cost $1200, so the change would encourage building for landowners.

''This will save a lot of money for people, and people will now be able to build quicker, essentially.''

Non-residential building would still need resource consents, he said.

Other changes to the block of land were fewer restrictions on the design and external appearance of the buildings, and less control over the removal of exotic weed trees.