[comment caption=Should Queenstown relax its rules around brothels?]Queenstown and Wanaka may get some new red-light attractions after Queenstown Lakes District councillors voted unanimously yesterday to review the council's brothel control bylaw.
The review could cost about $10,000.
At a meeting in Wanaka, councillors heard a plea during the public forum from a potential Queenstown brothel operator.
The council's brothel bylaw was "unfairly" prohibitive, she said.
Under the bylaw, no-one can establish or operate a brothel within Queenstown or Wanaka town-centre zones if it is within 100m of a residential-zoned site, school, community facility, or reserve.
In a report, Lakes Environmental regulatory and corporate manager Lee Webster said the existing bylaw could be challenged on grounds of "unreasonableness", as it essentially ruled out any location for a brothel within the Queenstown central business district.
The Prostitution Reform Act 2003 allowed for local authorities to regulate where brothels were located, but not to such an extent that it prohibited such an activity, he said.
Any review would have both staff-resourcing implications and "direct" financial implications, given the necessary public notification process involved.
A council financial-impact statement estimated a cost of $10,000 to undertake the review, and said there was no budget this financial year, or next year, for it.
Councillors voted unanimously to appoint a working party, consisting of Gillian Macleod, Lyal Cocks, and Lex Perkings to review and consider an appropriately amended draft bylaw to go out for public consultation.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes told the Otago Daily Times after the council meeting that on the grounds of natural justice the council's existing bylaw was illegal.
A review of the bylaw would enable applicants to apply for a licence, and the council, or its nominated regulatory body Lakes Environmental, would be able to set the terms and conditions of how a brothel operated, he said.
He warned potential operators might find it difficult to secure property from landlords to conduct brothels, as had been the case in the past.
"Brothels are not an appropriate image for a resort to have and that is another challenge any potential operator faces," Mr Geddes said.
The last brothel in Queenstown closed two months after the QLDC's existing bylaw came into effect in November 2008.
Candy's, a club which operated from Shotover St premises, was shut in December 2008 when its lease expired.
