At its full meeting yesterday, the Queenstown Lakes District Council unanimously approved hiking fees for tables and chair licences for the first time since the policy was introduced in 2006.
Until now, based on per square metre per annum, businesses paid $100 in the Queenstown Mall, $80 at Earnslaw Park or Steamer Wharf, $70 on Queenstown pavements and $35 in Arrowtown.
However, the assessed current market rates show it should cost $600 in the lower Queenstown Mall, $400 in the upper Mall, $550 on the Queenstown lakefront and $350 on Beach and Shotover Sts.
All remaining pavements in Queenstown were assessed at $200 per square metre per annum, Buckingham St in Arrowtown was $140 and all remaining Arrowtown pavements $90.
In Wanaka, lakefront licence holders paid $50 per square metre per annum and $35 on pavements at present — current market rates have those areas at $160 and $130, respectively.
Glenorchy is the only place where there has been no change, remaining at $35.
In his report for councillors, property adviser Dan Cruickshank recommended the fees be doubled in all locations except Glenorchy.
That would be a "first step in increasing the rents to become more in line with assessed current market rents".
"It is recommended to partially increase rents for the next renewal, in order to balance the need to increase rents towards market, with the needs of the operators to be able to plan ahead and budget for the cost of rent.
"On this basis, operators should expect further increases over coming years."
The combined table and chair licence income has generated $99,528 for the council every year. That would increase to $204,360.
The extra income would mainly go into the council’s maintenance and operating budget for the district, but some could be channelled towards specific town centre projects.
Cr Alexa Forbes asked if the fee increase would be "better received" by business owners if all the additional revenue went into town centre projects.
Council property and infrastructure manager Peter Hansby told councillors the increase would bring fees up to only about one-third of estimated market rates.
In a "balanced approach", future increases would be tied to further investment in the town centre. Cr Craig Ferguson said the issue raised the question of whether the 10pm trading limit for outdoor areas should be relaxed.
"If we are going to charge at market rate in the district, I think council should do what it can to help businesses succeed.
"We’ve got these beautiful twilights which we want our international visitors to enjoy. We need to grow up as an international resort and look at that."
Having people sitting outside in the town centre longer into the evening might also encourage "riff-raff" to go somewhere else, he said.
