A growth management project born out of community feedback stemming back to 2002 will be considered by the Queenstown Lakes District Council strategy committee this week, QLDC planning manager Vicki Jones said.

"This is the single most important strategic document that the council has produced that will form an umbrella for everything that we do. It is the result of a project that has been evolving in a climate of strong and ongoing growth," Ms Jones said.

The 2006 census projections confirmed QLDC modelling that the population of the district has increased by 30 percent in the last five years.

"If current development trends continue in terms of land needed for houses and commercial and industrial uses, then the demand will exceed the land area available within the current settlements and identified extensions. What that means is that new development will need to use land more intensively, that in turn must be managed," Ms Jones said.

The strategy had been prepared on the grounds that the council cannot stop growth from occurring in the district, but that it has a range of statutory powers that allow it to influence the form of that growth.

"The work on that issue alone over the last four years has been exhaustive. It's not a message that everyone will enjoy receiving but nevertheless we now have all the back end work to quantify the statement," Ms Jones said.

The good news was that the council now had a document that offered it robust tools to manage growth.

"We can now be more explicit about where growth must go and where it must not go. The strategy clarifies expectations around the quality and design of that growth and the type of growth needed to meet future needs," QLDC Mayor Clive Geddes said.

The work undertaken to reach the final draft strategy had been extensive.

"Right from the community plan process when our communities aired their concerns about growth to the dwelling capacity study, to the growth option study and finally the public Options 2020 workshops of 2004," he said.

The result was the Growth Management Strategy providing over-arching goals and a strategy for achieving those goals.

The strategy committee would be asked to recommend to the full council at the end of the month that it adopt the draft for consultation.

ENDS

For further information please contact  Clive Geddes 027 229 4860.

By: Sarah