The Queenstown Lakes District Council strategy and planning committee will be asked to endorse the next step in implementing the Wanaka Structure Plan, tomorrow (Wednesday).

"The plan, which stems from the Wanaka 2020 future planning process, was adopted as a working document by the Council in December 2004.

"We are now at the point where we are focusing in on one of the key elements outlined in the Structure Plan, namely a 110 hectare site situated to the south of Mount Iron, bordered by state highway 84 and Ballantyne and Riverbank Roads," QLDC strategy and planning manager Vicki Jones said.

The site, which is owned by Willowridge Developments Limited, was last year earmarked in the plan for mixed use, including industrial, retail and residential.

Willowridge Developments is a Wanaka-based company, owned by Allan Dippie, which has been developing the Meadowstone subdivision over the last ten years.

"This new project, known as 3 Parks, is very much in the early stages and will be subject to intensive public consultation in the form of a (District Plan) Plan Change, which we hope to notify towards the end of the year. In accordance with the Structure Plan, the site is planned to become Wanaka's second town hub," Ms Jones said.

Prior to fine tuning the proposal, the Wanaka community would be invited to a public briefing and asked to complete feedback forms, within the next three months.

The 3 Parks project was an opportunity to carefully plan a 'greenfields', service and community focus, that the whole district could utilise, Mr Dippie said.

"It's an exciting project, not only for Wanaka, but also for the growing Upper Clutha communities," Mr Dippie said.

At tomorrow's meeting the strategy and planning committee would be asked to finalise the geographic scope of the area and recommend to further the work on the project, and prepare a masterplan.

The Wanaka Community Board would be updated during its meeting at Wanaka on Thursday (April 14), which would be open to the public.

The Council had been working with Willowridge Developments Limited, Council contractors and external consultants on the initial stages of the project.

"From the community's perspective there has been some priority given in re-zoning the area, due to the commercial component of the proposal, which Wanaka is already in need of. The other elements here are the opportunity for large scale retail, service and employment opportunities," Ms Jones said.

It was hoped the public briefing and feedback would take place at Wanaka in June, with notification of the Plan Change planned for November.

"At that point the process of consultation, notification, receipt of submissions, summarising of submissions, receipt of further submissions and hearings will commence," Ms Jones said.

ENDS

For further information please contact Vicki Jones 03 441 0499 or Allan Dippie 0274 334 128.

By: Tamah