The recommended final Wanaka Structure Plan will be presented at this week's Queenstown Lakes District Council strategy meeting (Thursday, November 18), QLDC planning and strategy manager Vicki Jones said.

The draft strategy was open to public comment through September and October with 38 written comments received, some of which were very extensive. The Wanaka Community Board and the Council's Strategy Committee have also fed detailed comments into the process.

"Our consultants received some valuable input and have been working through those public comments and in some cases refining and revising the plan.  In fact that process is still going on this week in order to meet Thursday's deadline", Ms Jones said. The Strategy Committee would receive the structure plan tomorrow (Wednesday) in order to allow time to appropriately consider any recent changes that had been made prior to the meeting.

The plan would be formally presented to the Strategy Committee at its public meeting at 11am in the Queenstown Council Chamber.

"At that meeting the committee will be asked to recommend to the full Council that it adopt the Structure Plan as a working document, on which to base the future planning of Wanaka," Ms Jones said.

The same report would also be presented to the Wanaka Community Board at its December meeting and the same 'endorsement' would be sort of the Board.

"Members of the public are welcome to attend either the Strategy Committee or the Community Board session. The recommendations of both the Strategy Committee and the Wanaka Community Board will then be considered by the full Council at its December meeting," Ms Jones said.

"It's unfortunate we were not able to hold the Strategy Committee meeting in Wanaka, however we will have copies of the plan available at the Wanaka Council office from Friday and the public can opt to attend the Wanaka Community Board session in December if they prefer," Ms Jones said.

The Council had invited the key affected Wanaka landowners to attend the strategy meeting presentation and is also encouraging all other interested people to attend.

"We will also send a copy to each of the 38 people and organisations who took the time to submit written comments to the proposal", she said.

"The plan will result in a series of plan changes over the coming years," Ms Jones said.

The recommended final Wanaka Structure Plan would also be available on the Council website www.qldc.govt.nz from Friday.

ENDS

For further information please contact Vicki Jones 441 0499.

By: Kiri