The Queenstown Lakes District Council will consult the public over a proposal to ban vehicles from part of a CBD street, temporarily, at least.
At yesterday's full meeting councillors voted unanimously to consult on options to pedestrianise Beach St, between Camp St and Cow Lane, with feedback to be reported back to the council in December.
The council will then make a decision on a proposed trial, to last for about nine months, possibly beginning as early as January.
During the public forum, DowntownQT general manager Steve Wilde encouraged the councillors to ''push through'' to consultation.
''We've been discussing this in this community since the mid 1970s.
''We've got enormous stakeholder support - 80 to 90% of people ... want this to happen.
''We'll never know if we're right until we try something. If we get it fundamentally wrong, we'll reverse it.
''We believe it will work [but] we have to offer [the public] the opportunity to say `no, we don't like it'.''
Baseline figures could be provided through a computer model which measured all cashless transactions, enabling a comparison at the end of the trial, Mr Wilde said.
The consultation would include putting forward an option to defer the trial until after a planned refurbishment of two buildings within the proposed pedestrian zone.
That work is planned for 2016 and work would require construction vehicles on the street during the trial period.
However, Mr Wilde believed it was better to ''push on''.
''We're always going to have development in the town centre ... but we'll certainly work with the developer.
''We can put up barriers and things, but we certainly don't want to see orange cones all the way down there.''
Cr Calum Macleod suggested placing furniture on the street, should it proceed to a trial closure, to ensure it was a true pedestrianised area rather than ''just a pedestrian road''.
