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Council eager to ease town's growing painsThe Queenstown Lakes District Council is asking residents to have their say on the future boundaries of the town to provide information for preparation for a plan change.Jude Gillies gets a perspective on the issue from the Arrowtown Village Association and members of the Arrowtown Promotion and Business Association.Chairman of the Arrowtown Village Association (AVA) Richard Newman says his organisation supports "controlled growth because we believe you'll never stop growth". "Arrowtown is surrounded by natural boundaries, and we're not saying next year but over the next 10 to 20 years there will be demand."People needed to have an open mind, he said. "A lot of people are forgetting that it's an urban growth boundary. It includes parks and commercial and retail areas, not just residential. "Some people were confused about what the "urban growth boundaries" meant, he added. People also forgot the town used to have its own borough and own council before it became part of the wider district under the Queenstown Lakes District Council. The proposals for growth were open to interpretation, and he said there were small "gaps" around the town as enclosed by the golf courses of Millbrook, The Hills and the Arrrowtown club. "The AVA has got an open mind." Mr Newman had just met a group of concerned residents who had been raising the profile of the issue and encouraged the community to respond to the council's request for feedback on its discussion document and found common ground. Both wanted to see controlled growth, he added. In its submission to the council's call earlier this year for community feedback, the AVA identified four areas where the boundary could be extended to accommodate limited future growth, but with controls and references to the Arrowtown Design Guidelines. The areas included that beyond Jopp St at the eastern end of the town, for use as a reserve until 2016, an extension on the southern side of Centennial Dr above the escarpment, an area extending slightly along the eastern boundary of McDonnell Rd and a small area along the edge of Bush Creek at the northwestern edge of the town. It also called for a landscaped setbacks along McDonell Rd and Centennial Dr extensions and wanted the escarpment facing southwest along McDonell Rd to be protected as a "no build" zone for future housing from its base to the top (the current urban zone boundary). The area above the escarpment was to be for subdivision limited to minimum lots of 4000sq m, where setbacks and heights were controlled. While the areas were minimal, they did allow some modest, controlled growth. Mr Newman said the issue was a complex one where inevitably there would be conflicts between the demand for growth and the desire for residents to contain the town within existing boundaries.
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