Yesterday the council decided unanimously to approve taking the Queenstown Town Centre Masterplan to the detailed planning phase.
It also voted, unanimously, to approve the preferred option in the detailed business cases of the masterplan for the Queenstown public and passenger transport facilities and town centre arterials and agreed to include funding in the long-term plan for a business case for developing one office to house council staff.
Of the last item, Mayor Jim Boult said having one building had been on the council’s books for almost 30 years.
"There has always been a reason why we haven’t done this, but we are now [in] a ridiculous situation.
"We’re spread around four offices around town.
"It’s completely non-productive — we’ve got staff down here [in the Gorge Rd office] that sometimes to me resemble battery hens they’re packed in that hard.
"We can’t just keep on pushing this back, we need to do something about it."
At present in the CBD there are 83 council "desks" in a leased building in Church St, another 82 in a Shotover St office building, 66 at the council’s main Gorge Rd site and nine in a newly leased office in Stanley St.
Each day about 30 people are redirected from one office to another to access the appropriate staff, while staff have to walk between offices for meetings.
Council chief executive Mike Theelen said previous councils had always found a reason to defer the one-office project.
While some might argue now was not the right time to be looking at investing in a new council headquarters, "it’s becoming mission critical", he said.
"We’ve championed a ‘can do council’, we’re trying to do that.
"Accommodation is starting to become a point break in our ability to work effectively [and] I’m sick and tired of being told about the ‘mayoral dungeon’."
When the council voted to progress with the project, corporate services manager Meaghan Miller voiced a "huge thank you" on behalf of the staff, saying it was a landmark day for them.
After the meeting, Mr Boult told the Otago Daily Times it was "a real watershed day" for the resort that had seen some important projects advanced by the council. Some had been on various council tables for decades.
"It’s a great way to end a year."
While all the projects still had a full process to go through as part of the long-term plan, and could be legally challenged, Mr Boult said he had confidence they would progress.
"I’m getting feedback from folks who talk to me, particularly over the last few days, [saying] ‘just get on with it’."
There would be a consultation period as part of the long-term plan process and the council would take on board the various points of view, "but I think they are logical, sensible projects that the district needs to protect".
While the value of the overall work proposed as part of the Queenstown Town Centre Masterplan — described by Cr Alexa Forbes as the "umbrella" for other projects — totalled $385million, Mr Boult said funding had only been approved for business cases at present.
"If you take the council offices, for example, the project cost is $41million.
"It might be that council does a joint venture with somebody to build the building, or it may be that we invite a party [to] build the building on our land and then we lease the building off them.
"While there is $385million in total ... that doesn’t mean for one minute that council will be writing a cheque for $385million."
