What was a farm paddock only a short few years ago has become a maze of streets and house lots covered in temporary fencing, piles of earth, stacks of timber, saw benches, scaffolding, portable toilets and rows of tradies’ utes and vans.
About 150 single-storey houses are under construction, and by the end there will be 480.
Despite being surrounded by this new-build clutter, it would be fair to say the first settlers in Lake Hāwea’s Longview subdivision are over the moon about where they have landed.
Todd Hammington is the chief executive of tech company Chameleon Creator.
He has come to Longview via Wellington, Melbourne and Dunedin and has just begun working from his home-with-a-view.
"Looking out the window now, there’s ice-capped mountains, there’s a lake just around the corner, there’s a community being built around us as well.
"When you come from Melbourne, this place looks like paradise."
Instead of a "matchbox" in a far-flung Melbourne suburb he and partner Jean Sloan have built a three-bedroom, one-office home on a 600sq m section for a total cost of $950,000.
He describes it as a "foot in the door" of the housing market, a term also used by Megan Taylor and partner Brendon Kitching.
They moved out of their Lake Hāwea rental and into their first home only days ago.
"It’s really cool."
The couple had been unable to find an existing house they could afford.
"To buy a house the same as what we’ve got here would have been over a million dollars, and we’ve paid three or four hundred [thousand dollars] less than that to build here."
She noted, however, section prices had gone up since they bought their section for $280,000 or $290,000 during the first release.
"We’re just stoked to have a foot in the door."
How many more will follow in Ms Taylor’s footsteps is the question.
At the behest of the government, the Queenstown Lakes District Council is proposing to add to its district plan an "urban intensification variation".
As the council puts it, intensification will provide a greater variety of housing near public services and infrastructure, reduce the need for greenfield expansion into sensitive landscapes and over land with productive potential, and create a more compact urban form and reduce the need to travel.
It would allow, in the district’s urban areas, such features as building heights of up to 12m in some parts and section sizes of 300sqm in some parts.
The Lake Hāwea township, including Longview and another area of bare land further south with the potential for 1600 new homes, is part of that process.
That is similar to Wānaka, and it is those numbers that have Mr Smith concerned about the ability of the town’s infrastructure to keep up.
Longview developer Lane Hocking does not accept all available land in the township is likely to be intensified to the maximum extent and he describes Mr Smith’s suggestion as "disingenuous".
"New Zealand would be 100 million houses under that rationale."
Whatever the numbers, there are two big tasks facing the council — upgrading the barely adequate water supply and wastewater systems.
The government announced last year a $24 million contribution, and planning is under way.
Council spokesman Sam White said changes to the water supply could include "beefing up" the injection of treated water into the network, upsizing and adding new pipelines and increasing reservoir storage.
He says the council is considering the best way to ensure the water supply can meet demand and "deliver value for money".
"Between now and the end of the year we’ll be refining, costing and evaluating these options further.
"We expect to have a preferred solution for the network confirmed in early 2024."
The council plans to solve the wastewater problem with a 12.5km pipeline alongside State Highway 6 from the township to Albert Town and into the existing system linked to the Project Pure treatment plant at Wānaka Airport.
He suggests replacing it could cost more than $50m, and there were no plans to do so at present.
Mr Hocking considers a new bridge funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency would be built when demand required it.
"The sooner the population grows at Lake Hāwea, the sooner a two-lane bridge will be justified.
"This was the case with the Kawarau bridge and the population growth brought by Jack’s Point and Hanley’s Farm."
Other concerns include the lack, as yet, of any schools, any commercial development and regular public transport.
Mr Hocking says the plan includes a 2500sq m market square, a 2ha sports field reserve, two 3000sq m reserves, a walkway and running track along both sides of a 2.8km water race, "active transport" connections, land for a school and land zoned for a shopping centre.
Despite this, there is a fear in the township it could become just a sprawling suburb of Wānaka.
Mr White said intensification "avoids the risk of sprawl" by making more efficient use of urban land.
"This is partly to limit the need for future expansion beyond defined urban boundaries and also partly to enable the population densities required to make future public transport more viable."
The council’s "urban intensification variation" also applies to parts of Queenstown and Wānaka but not such townships as Luggate, Cardrona and Kingston.
The public has until September 21 to make submissions.
