Resort resident Danna Burton has applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the council’s Activities in Public Places bylaw.
Ms Burton, who operates a crepe stall on the waterfront, has confirmed to Mountain Scene she has filed documents in the court under her name and the Queenstown Lakes District Street Food Vendors Society.
She declined to comment further, but council chief executive Mike Theelen said this week it had received notice of the judicial review application.
Mr Theelen said the matter was with the council’s lawyers, and he was unable to comment any further.
The legal challenge follows a decision by councillors in April to impose a 12-month moratorium on new permits for stallholders anywhere in the town centre.
Existing permit holders on the waterfront, who are mainly food sellers, are allowed to keep operating until their permits expire — the last few expire next March.
Those whose permits were expiring sooner were given a four-month reprieve, but those permits expire this Sunday.
Council staff recommended councillors impose the 12-month freeze on new permits after receiving complaints from waterfront businesses.
An investigation found the majority of stallholders were breaching the bylaw by staying too long in one location and operating too close to each other.
Until the decision, there had been no limit on the number of permits that could be issued, and they increased from 52 in 2022 to 133 last year.
The bylaw, which stallholders and some councillors have criticised as "unworkable", came into effect two years ago and is not up for review until 2028.
It provides for only three or four permitted pop-up stallholders to operate along a 150m strip of the waterfront, beside the Queenstown Bay lake wall.
They have to move every hour, and remain at least 50m from each other.
Permits for busking and charity collections are not affected.
If the judicial review proceeds, the judge will examine how the council made the bylaw, to ensure it followed a lawful process.
Burton’s legal challenge comes nearly a year after the council’s freedom camping bylaw was quashed in the High Court after the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association sought a judicial review.
In March, Burton launched an online petition for a public vote of no confidence in the council, citing "systemic governance failures, environmental mismanagement, and serious breaches of financial transparency".
It garnered 1647 signatures.
She then submitted a similar petition to the New Zealand Parliamentary Petition website, for which the closing date for signatures is this Sunday.
It urged the Local Government minister to investigate the council’s compliance with its statutory obligations, and consider the appointment of a Crown Observer or commissioners to oversee its governance.
It had received 174 signatures as of Wednesday this week.
