Lakes district residents wanting to earn extra income and rent their houses for short-term visitor accommodation have the way clear to register their properties now that the Queenstown Lakes District Council is about to ratify plan change 22.
After almost two years and a second drafting of the plan change, QLDC staff are treating it as operative and processing applications for registrations of the short-term rental properties, said general manager policy and planning Philip Pannett.
Already, several applications for registration were being processed by the council.
Registration was automatically granted provided people met the short-term criteria of letting, where paying guests stay for a total of less than three months a year.
Having friends and family to stay free did not constitute visitor accommodation, Mr Pannett added.
Those registered pay extra rates to reflect their part-time commercial operation.
The plan change had sought clarity on the issue for home owners wishing to lease their properties and removed the requirement to apply for resource consent.
It also alleviated concerns within the accommodation industry, which wanted those providing visitor accommodation to contribute to the cost of promoting the area through their rates, he explained.
While the council did not keep records of numbers providing short-term visitor accommodation, the registration process would now supply that, he added.
The visitor accommodation plan change was one of several under action by the QLDC which Mr Pannett updated at last week's strategy committee meeting.
Others included the Arrowtown growth boundaries and the Frankton Flats special zone b plan change, as follows.
Plan change 5B: Bible Terrace, Glenorchy.
Purpose: To amend the south-eastern boundary of the Glenorchy Township zone to correspond with the base of the Bible Terrace to protect against inappropriate development of the Bible Terrace.
Status: On hold. A copy of the draft plan change has been circulated to the owners of the property and the Glenorchy Community Association for comment. Once received, the plan change will be taken back to the strategy committee for ratification.
Plan change 6: Access widths.
Purpose: To ensure that the width of accessways to residential properties is appropriately designed for current and future use.
Plan change 8: Car parking.
Purpose: To align the district plan requirements for car parking spaces with the actual parking demands for residential and visitor accommodation development.
Plan change 10: Improving amenity in the high-density residential zone.
Purpose: To improve the amenity values of the high-density residential zone located within the Queenstown and Wanaka urban areas.
Status: All three are under appeal. All matters to be reviewed at a March pre-hearing conference and those not resolved by consent memorandum will be set down for a hearing.
Plan change 11B: Definition of ground level, height and the rural general, Gibbston character, low and high-density residential, rural living township, Quail Rise and Meadow Park zone building height standards.
Purpose: To implement a clear and consistent definition of ground level.
Status: Under appeal. A recommendation of the panel of commissioners was adopted by the council on November 28, 2008, and advertised on December 10, 2008. Two appeals received.
Cardrona structure plan.
Purpose: Scoping. A discussion document outlining a proposed structure plan for Cardrona has been released for community consultation. It identifies recommendations for subsequent plan changes to achieve outcomes identified in the Cardrona Village urban design assessment and the Cardrona 2020 community plan.
Status: Submissions on the discussion document close on March 28, 2009.
Plan change 18: Mount Cardrona plan change.
Purpose: To investigate changing the location of the rural visitor zone located at the base of the Cardrona Skifield access road to reduce adverse effects on visual amenity and the landscape.
Status: Council decision under appeal. The period for section 274 parties to join the process will end on March 24, 2009.
Plan change 19: Frankton Flats special zone B.
Purpose: To provide for the comprehensive rezoning of the land known as the Frankton Flats to enable the following activities, educational, residential, visitor accommodation, commercial, industrial, business, recreational activities for the Five Mile development.
Status: The commissioners have received all the information and are expected to make a recommendation to the council for ratification in the second quarter of 2009.
Plan change 22: Definition of visitor accommodation.
Purpose: To amend the current definition of visitor accommodation to resolve the existing consenting dilemma where a homeowner cannot advertise and rent their house on a short-term basis for even just a few days per year, while away on holiday, without having a resource consent for visitor accommodation.
Status: Decision notified in December 2008 with no appeals received. To be presented for ratification by the council at the end of March and become operative.
Plan change 23: High density neighbourhood plan change.
Purpose: To provide residen-tial neighbourhoods for a sustainable community through location of visitor accommo-dation units and defining the role of visitor accommodation in the residential areas, the high-density zone in particular. It follows issues dealt within plan change 10 by exploring a further definition of subzones by activity.
Status: Work under action and next report due in June 2009.
Plan change 24: Affordable and community housing.
Purpose: To introduce affordable housing into the policies of the district plan so that it can become a relevant matter when plan changes or variations are proposed, as well as when resource consent applications are considered, and where appropriate require the delivery of affordable housing.
Status: Decision notified January 14, 2009. Under appeal, with two received and a third signalled but not yet received.
Plan change 25: Kingston.
Purpose: To investigate the provision of land for the expansion of the Kingston township.
Status: Notified for submissions on December 13, 2008. The submission period closed February 13, 2009. A summary of submissions will be notified for further submissions in the near future.
Plan change 27: Updates of references and standards in the district plan.
Purpose: To update references to external documents that are unclear or have become outdated since the notification of the district plan, with reference to standards for noise measurement, traffic and parking design and lighting standards.
Status: Scoping. It is likely they will be addressed through a series of plan changes, with the first two before the strategy committee in April and lighting standards in May.
Plan change 28: Trails.
Purpose: To remove obstacles to the provision of trails (walking, cycling and bridleways, etc), particularly in the rural area, due to trails previously being considered public places when assessing development or subdivision applications under the district plan.
Status : Council decision under appeal and matters under discussion with appellants, but if it cannot be resolved, will go to Environment Court.
Plan change 29 and 30: Arrowtown boundary and urban growth boundary framework.
Purpose: To consider whether a plan change is appropriate to provide a growth boundary for urban development around Arrowtown.
Status: Plan change being prepared after response received on discussion document and presented to March strategy committee meeting. Draft plan change to be prepared for April strategy committee meeting.
Financial contributions, variation 25.
Purpose: A draft consent memorandum has been sent to appellants for comment and a memorandum was presented to the court at a pre-hearing conference in February 2009 and discussions continuing with appeals adjourned to a date fixed by the court for further discussions.
Plan change 34: Remarkables Park, private plan change.
Purpose: To amend the structure plan and provision of the Remarkables Park Zone for provision of significant additional large format retail activities within an appropriate location, to allow more mixed use live-work type activities, and to realign the zone boundaries to reflect Remarkables Park Ltd and Queenstown Airport Corp land ownership.
Status: On hold pending further information.
Plan cChange Queenstown Airport Corp, private plan change.
Purpose: To change the air-noise boundaries in the district plan.
Status: Work on monitoring results is being process and a private plan change is expected to be lodged in the near future, possibly March 2009.
