$1 billion draft plan, rates spike on the cards for Queenstown Lakes residents

Tuesday, 6 March 2018

The Queenstown Lakes District Council will consider its pushing ahead with its draft 10-year plan on Friday.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council is proposing a $1 billion plan for its next 10 years of work, including proposed rates increases for residents.

The 'bold' work programme and investment featured in the council's draft Long-Term Plan was almost three times the size of any other plan in the council's history.

It included an average rates rise of 6.9 per cent in the 2018-19 financial year, followed by rates increases of about 3.5 per cent over the rest of the life of the 10-year plan.

Mayor Jim Boult said it was a 'massive task' to create a plan that addressed the significant growth in resident and visitor numbers the district was experiencing, while also ensuring the community could afford to pay for it.

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'We've worked damn hard to make sure we do not overly burden our ratepayers, but we also know our ratepayers expect the traffic to get better, water to keep flowing out of taps and community facilities to stay open.

'The reality is that with exponential growth, the delivering of these basic expectations comes with a cost.'

The council was leveraging 'every possible tool' – including credit rating, debt, land sales and expected government funding – to make sure the draft plan remained affordable.

'We have had to play catch up and we now have to make sure that the level of capital investment gets us back ahead of the game,' Boult said.

The district was expected to reach 150,000 residents by 2028.

'The ratio of residents to international visitors in our district is 1 to 34, the ratio in Auckland is 1 to 1. We have put up an affordable plan but we are saying clearly and loudly to central government that our residents cannot continue to sustain the cost of visitor growth,' Boult said.

'We have put up a bold plan because we have reached the position that we have no choice but to invest heavily in this district – but our community has a choice and we have clearly outlined the options for each key issue.'

The council will vote to start public consultation on its draft 10-year plan at its meeting on Friday.