Dealing with 'big city' issues in CBD

Steve Wilde
Steve Wilde
The manager of Queenstown's CBD says the town is in the middle of a ''$1 billion transformation phase'' and its community needs ''big city pants to sort it out''.

DowntownQT general manager Steve Wilde also believes employers will need to factor the cost of staff car parking into their business models and compensate those who need their vehicles for work - or make the ''tough call'' to relocate to areas away from the CBD.

However, Queenstown Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ann Lockhart disagreed and said at present ''people can see what the obstacles are ... not what the possibility is''.

At its meeting in Wanaka today the Queenstown Lakes District Council will discuss a proposal to hike parking rates across all of its car parks in the CBD, from between $1 and $4 an hour; introduce a new pay-and-display parking area; ban free, all-day parking from the One Mile roundabout and Queenstown Gardens, as well as parking on road verges; and remove permit parks.

The proposed changes would coincide with the introduction of $2 bus fares to be operated by Ritchies, and were designed to improve the ''liveability'' in the resort, and encourage people to take the bus, walk, or bike to the CBD.

Mr Wilde said there was ''no question'' the community was in a difficult situation but urged people to have an open mind.

''It's not going to be easy to get through this.

''We are dealing with big city issues and we need big city pants to sort it out.''

Ms Lockhart said she had not had any formal feedback on the proposal but she believed the community needed to support the changes.

''The devil is always in the detail, but I think we need to give [the new bus system] a shot.

''I agree that not everyone is going to use it, but I think it's too early a call to say 'this is not going to work' because we haven't tried it.

''The problem for people is that they've had something and it's been taken away from them.''

Mr Wilde said of greater concern to DowntownQT members was a proposal to introduce three additional bus stops on Camp St, taking the total number to four.

That meant buses would be pulling up outside businesses on both sides of the street, ''belching fumes'' and creating congestion on footpaths.

''We want the buses, but ... we haven't got anywhere to put them at the moment because we don't have the arterial [road]. There are so many ... conflicting issues.

''We all need to accept that the town is not what it was ... and just hold each other's hands to get through this transition phase so we can make it work.''

tracey.roxburgh@odt.co.nz

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