Context
With the international border closed, the flights at Queenstown Airport had dropped dramatically and tourism businesses were hurting. This took energy away from the airport debate.
But our focus had never been the airport, our story was always about developing a fantastically liveable town at Frankton. The driving reason was residential population growth. Our primary request is for QLDC to consider this option within its existing workflow. As always, Council chose not to.
QLDC full council meeting
October 8, 2020
Kia ora, I am John Hilhorst representing FlightPlan2050
Thank you for your continued patience with hearing me speak at these public forums.
Some suggest that the drop in demand for air travel means we can put off the airport discussions, possibly for decades. But this airport-centric view misses the main point. The driving impetus is not the issue of air travel. That problem can be solved easily, and a single airport near Tarras could do this whether passenger demand became greater or smaller than we currently have.
The fundamental issue that our district planning must resolve is the inevitable growth in resident population. Even the post-Covid revised projections released by QLDC on 25 August this year suggest the Wakatipu population will nearly double in the next 30 years. And this growth in population won’t stop then. It will likely again double in the subsequent 30 years. As we all know, this is a fantastic place to live, and it will continue to attract new residents from New Zealand and abroad.
So, the underlying question should not be focused on the airport. Instead, we should concentrate on how to best accommodate the growth in the resident population. And, how to use this growth to get the best out of our district and its resources?
Using this lens, we would ask quite different questions. Such as:
- How could we use the residential population growth to help reduce the district’s emissions per person? To improve public transport? To reduce the cost of living? To improve housing affordability? To reduce the cost of public infrastructures such as roading, water and sewerage?
- How could we use the growth in the residential population to empower the diversification of our economy? How could we use it to grow and strengthen social cohesion, interpersonal connectivity and community well-being?
- And while doing all of these, how could we best protect and enhance the district’s outstanding natural environment, the foundation value that draws us all to this district.
The answer to all these aspirational questions is, of course, to concentrate the population. To make a high-density campus that would be a fantastic place in which to live and work.
So where in the Wakatipu is it possible to create such a centre? The answer to that question is simple, there is only one place, and it is on Frankton Flats.
And what’s the alternative? Urban sprawl carving up the Wakatipu Basin into an endless series of suburbs, private vehicles, and congested roads. And the Boffa Miskell master plan produced for Frankton Flats, which would have high density, small box retail crammed four-storey-high both sides of the State Highway at 5-Mile, to massively constrict the busiest arterial route in the district.
Every year that we delay, increases the number of consents allowing urban sprawl throughout the Wakatipu Basin and entrenches poor planning outcomes for Frankton Flats.
We are at a crossroads. We need information and analysis. The Spatial, Ten-Year and Ladies Mile plans all provide opportunities to study and consult on these opportunities. But that requires your direction for their terms of reference.
We need our leaders to lead.
Thank you.