Consultation over visitor accommodation controls has enabled good progress on the issue," Queenstown Lakes District Council senior planning analyst Scott Figenshow said.

An informal options and issues paper was prepared last month to gauge community feeling on the matter, prior to entering into any formal process.

"We received 107 submissions on the option paper. Some of those submissions raised some excellent points and some of them showed people misunderstood the options, which is concerning," Mr Figenshow said.

In particular some submitters had not recognised that the council was attempting to resolve an old issue not add new regulation, he said.

Other input was of huge value.

"One of the questions the option paper asked was, 'Could we change the definition of visitor accommodation to allow for short-term, visitor accommodation use up to 28-days, without needing consent?'.

"Wanaka holiday homeowners in particular responded 'no' to that suggestion and the point was raised that holiday home owners should be able to rent their homes for any length of time" Mr Figenshow said.

That group felt that the new 'mixed use' rate meant that those operating visitor accommodation in their home were able to pay their fair share to the community, but should not be required to also obtain resource consent.

A report on the definition of visitor accommodation and a further issues and options paper on visitor accommodation and residential amenity, including a summary of the submissions received to date would be considered by the QLDC Strategy Committee tomorrow (Wednesday).

"It's clear that we will need to talk further with the community. Whatever path the committee decides to take will involve more consultation," Mr Figenshow said.

One of the recommendations for tomorrow's meeting involved progressing to prepare a formal analysis, which must be done prior to any District Plan change. "That process in itself requires formal consultation," he said.

At the moment the current District Plan definition meant if someone was renting their house, no matter how short term, they needed a resource consent according to the District Plan definition.

"That's the problem we want to address here," he said.

In order to continue the community dialogue on visitor accommodation, drop-in sessions would take place in both Wanaka and Queenstown at the end of next week.

ENDS

For further information please contact Scott Figenshow 03 441 0499.

By: Sarah