The Wanaka Yacht Club has welcomed support for an extension of its facilities in the draft Wanaka lakefront reserves management plan.
The Wanaka Community Board will today consider approving the draft plan for public notification.
Prepared by Parks and Recreation infrastructure Consultants Ltd, the plan applies to 14 reserves surrounding Lake Wanaka covering about 315ha from Glendhu Bay to the Outlet Camp.
It identifies in general terms how the Queenstown Lakes District Council wants the reserves to be managed, protected and developed and has considered suggestions from the public, key stakeholders and iwi.
Plan policies for the Wanaka Marina Reserve support increasing the leased area for the Wanaka Yacht Club to accommodate an extended clubhouse.
The extensions would include a building for the Wanaka Coastguard, new toilets/changing rooms and a bigger main clubroom.
Club commodore Quentin Smith said the club was yet to review the draft plan, but he was pleased to hear it included a policy supporting improvements to club facilities, a proposal which had been in the pipeline for several years.
Policies for the Roys Bay Reserve - the Wanaka township's main lakefront area - include: to consider support for a combined watersports club building within the southwestern end of the bay; to permit a Lower Ardmore St landscape development; and to support the building of a new iSite.
Under the plan, council would continue to allow use of the reserves for commercial purposes via a concession or formal agreement under the Reserves Act.
However, a publicly notified development plan to create more open space opposite the town's retail centre would consider removing commercial facilities from the Roys Bay Reserve that could otherwise occupy non-reserve land at the end of existing leases or license terms.
The plan requires the council to ensure all capital works programmes be developed in consultation with the community, including the addition or removal of any built structure whether publicly or privately owned.
Any new building or modified existing facility shall be, wherever possible, set back an appropriate distance from the mean high water mark to ensure public pedestrian access along the lakefront edge of reserve is maintained.
QLDC parks and operations manager Mike Weaver has recommended the community board nominate a hearings panel to consider submissions and to finalise the plan for endorsement by the board.
A management plan was considered a ''pragmatic response'' to the increasing number of applications for various structures and activities along the Wanaka lakefront, Mr Weaver said.
A draft for notification was intended to be released before Christmas. However, the timetable was delayed largely because of the range of topics raised.
