"Capturing value" is the priority initiative of a new joint committee formed to negotiate a regional deal for Otago Central Lakes (OCL).
The OCL regional deal negotiation committee, comprising Otago Regional Council (ORC) chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson, who was appointed committee chair, ORC councillor Alexa Forbes, Central Otago District Mayor Tamah Alley and councillor Tracy Paterson (appointed deputy chair), and Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers and councillor Lyal Cocks — held its first online meeting on Friday.
Cr Robertson said it was a "momentous occasion".
"It’s a genuinely exciting opportunity and it’s a big responsibility — a tough challenge for us all, but not in a negative way because it means so much.
"We’ll be dealing with significant issues and there’s enormous potential here.
"Today marks the beginning of something significant — a new way of working together across councils, and with central government, to deliver enduring outcomes for the people and the places we serve.
"It’s not about who leads or who benefits more here ... it’s not a competition, it’s a commitment.
"Together, we’ll focus on ensuring that we’re united so we set up a really stable base to hopefully deliver for the future."
One of the first decisions the committee was asked to make was to rank, in order, the prioritisation of the five initiatives set out in the regional deal proposal.
Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) strategy and reform manager Pennie Pearce said council staff had tried, in discussions with the Department of Internal Affairs, to explain the priorities were all important.
"We need all of them in order to ensure that our communities are prepared for the future, and they were really clear they wanted us to say, in particular, what is the most important thing ... and out of these five, what is the order of priority.
"I don’t think that means they are only going to go with the first one, but they’ve definitely asked us for that."
While QLDC had agreed its top priority was transforming transport, Central Otago District Council ranked capturing value first, recognising some of the aspects within that initiative — "bespoke" settings to ensure growth pays for growth, a local visitor levy, bespoke settings to enable a pipeline of affordable housing, and mining royalties — would enable, or could potentially enable, some of the transport initiatives, which included enabling offline mass-rapid transport and establishing alternative funding/financing/ownership/delivery mechanisms for critical public transport, roading and bridge infrastructure.
"While you may have it ranked one, two, just to get around that DIA requirement, I think they probably are still folded in together, and then maybe out of that will fall a specific project or ask of the government around the value capture enabling the next step," Ms Alley said.
Cr Robertson said ORC had not come to a prioritisation, but its two key themes were transport and value capture including ensuring the primary production sector’s growth was captured and enhanced.
Cr Paterson and Cr Forbes both agreed value capture needed to be ranked first.
"After spending the day sitting in the LGNZ conference, I think capturing value has got to be at the top, just given what we’re hearing from the ministers," Cr Paterson said.
Cr Forbes: "We’ve been told clearly there’s no funding available, so we have to capture the value before we do anything."
Ultimately, the committee agreed to rank capturing value in first place, followed by, in order, transform transport, electrify Otago Central Lakes, private investment-public health, and visitors and investors.
The priority ranking will be used to inform negotiations with central government.
Regional deal priorities
1. Capture value.
2. Transform transport.
3. Electrify Otago Central Lakes.
4. Private investment-public health.
5. Visitors and investors.
