Wanaka businessman Mike Saunders has called for the Queenstown Lakes District Council to stop revisiting alternative sites for sports facilities and show some leadership by choosing the combined showgrounds and camping reserve.
Mr Saunders chaired the now-defunct Wanaka sports facilities working party, which was appointed by the council in 1998 to investigate sites with the purpose of "resolving the future arrangements for sporting facilities".
The showgrounds and camping ground recreation reserve was the working party's first choice in 2008 but the Wanaka Community Board asked QLDC community services general manager Paul Wilson to investigate other sites.
Mr Wilson did that and last week recommended the council go with the working party's first choice of the town reserve.
However, the council resolved to have another, closer look at greenfield options in a triangle of mostly bare land between Ballantyne Rd, Riverbank Rd and State Highway 84, and to find out if there were any willing vendors.
No timeframe has been set for that investigation. It could take about two months.
Mr Saunders said yesterday Wanaka Community Board chairman Lyal Cocks seemed to be leading the charge for a change of site but it was time to show leadership and "just make a decision". He was questioning whether the working party members should have ever bothered investigating.
One way or another, building new sports facilities would impose more costs on ratepayers. But buying a greenfields site unnecessarily could force ratepayers to pay more than they needed to, he said.
"If I were a landowner there [in the greenfields] with the development that's been proposed, and I had my home there, I would be putting a good price on it," Mr Saunders said.
He said a sports stadium in an empty paddock on the outskirts of town would "sit there for 20 years like a white elephant" and struggle to attract users or make any income.
Mr Saunders is also the chairman of Lakes Leisure, a council-owned company that oversees the district's recreational facilities, such as swimming pools and halls.
He said about 300,000 people went through the Queenstown Events Centre (QEC) every year and about half of them visited the adjoining aquatic centre.
"Even that doesn't bring in enough [revenue] for a coffee shop. It does a little bit of retailing of swimming togs . . . but even huge event centres like Auckland struggle to make a lunch bar work."
Mr Saunders acknowledged people were worried about traffic congestion and car parking in central Wanaka, but those issues needed to be dealt with by the council separately, through a review of central business parking rules and the future provision of a car park building.
The reserve provided enough space for 154 car parks without impinging on existing show space and further street-side parking was available, whereas the QEC was squeezed in between a state highway and an airport.
Mr Saunders also acknowledged the rugby club and show society were concerned about future loss of space and autonomy, but said there was plenty of room for the proposed built facilities on the camping ground site, including a swimming pool and hard courts.
Four organisations occupy Wanaka's recreation reserve in town: the Upper Clutha A&P Society (lease expires February 28, 2017); the Upper Clutha Rugby Club (lease expires June 30, 2012); Lakeview Holiday Park (lease expires August 13 this year); and the Wanaka Pottery Club (has no lease arrangement).
