The Wanaka community have come out in droves to share their views on the Wanaka Town Centre Masterplan and transport options.

Queenstown Lakes District Deputy Mayor Calum MacLeod is thrilled with the response, which he says is unprecedented in the Queenstown Lakes District.

“We tried a number of ways to reach out to the Upper Clutha community and businesses to let them know about the Town Centre Trials and Masterplan options. We are always looking for new and improved ways to communicate and the trial activations certainly helped to focus the conversation and bring people together to share their views and ideas,” Mr MacLeod said.

“The trials gave us all a glimpse of a potential future, put pressure on infrastructure, established the urgent need for a second cross town route, identified pressure points, while enabling us to share information and test concepts with the community. The data we collected through this process is incredibly valuable,” he said.

The Masterplan and transport options and trial activations prompted over 1000 people to share their views online and many more to share ideas and suggestions in person. Over 94% of these people were Upper Clutha ratepayers and residents.

Mr MacLeod enjoyed seeing such a wide range of people taking part in the trials and participating in the process.

“The approach meant the information we were sharing was really accessible allowing a much broader range of people to participate. Giving people a few days to visit and talk through the concepts meant everyone, including seniors, workers, families and young adults were able to fit it in to their busy schedules and take part,” he said.

In the coming weeks, survey data and comments will be analysed and factored in as the community reference group and the project team develops a preferred masterplan and transport programme, with further community engagement scheduled for late May.

“Change is the only constant and at this stage the only option not on the table is doing nothing. So for now it’s heads down, tails up while the project team work through the process of developing a preferred programme of work. I am very much look forward to sharing that work with the whole community again later in May,” Mr MacLeod said.

A summary of the survey data and all of the feedback can be read online at www.qldc.govt.nz/wanaka-masterplan

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