Closing part of Ardmore St and building a car park on Lismore Park are among suggestions added to the final version of Wanaka's town centre strategy which was approved by the Wanaka Community Board yesterday.
The strategy, against which all future developments in the small central business district will be measured, comes before the Queenstown Lakes District Council strategy committee for final adoption next month.
Adoption will pave the way for formal public consultation, detailed technical analysis and scoping reports.
A draft strategy encompassing work done in 2002 and 2007 was presented to the community for feedback in March. It was a response to calls for better management of rapid visitor and residential population growth.
The Sustainable Wanaka Trust and others wanted the board to explore more intensive development of the town centre before proceeding with proposals to enable new commercial hubs on the outskirts of town.
A zone change hearing for one of those proposals, Three Parks, commences in Wanaka today.
The council's most recent population projections forecast Wanaka's usually resident population will increase from 7005 in 2006 to 10,308 by 2016 and to 13,747 by 2026.
The strategy has been a 13-month labour of love for the working party chaired by Charlie Grant. Community representatives on the working party were Henry Heard, Chris Norman and Lynne Fegan.
There is no capital budget quantifying the value of any or all of the works that might result from the strategy's action plan because its nature is to provide guidance.
It could take many years to confirm all the suggested actions and allocate budgets in future council annual plans.
The board had a lengthy discussion about the strategy yesterday, mainly focused on technical wording issues and reinforcing the fact the working party's recommended options need not be the only options to be considered
WANAKA'S TOWN CENTRE STRATEGY
Among the main changes to the strategy are:
> A shared space off the end of Helwick St to connect lower Helwick St to the lakefront
> Closing lakefront part of Ardmore St an option
> Roadside parking along the lakefront part of Ardmore St
> Addition of the Ardmore St-Brownston St project (transportation issues)
> Consideration of appropriateness of buildings on lakefront reserve
> Civic area changed to site in centre of town; civic area space considerably expanded
> Golf Course Corner potential site for replacing Lake Wanaka Centre
> Multistorey car park long-term recommendation
> Lismore Park car park now a possibility
