Aaron Cowie
Q1 It is well known that one of the key contributors to the historic issues with Lake Hayes water quality has been from upstream land development..
What is your position on intensification in the Lake Hayes catchment area?
I came from a generational family farm and on that farm the Winton stream ran through it. I grew up playing and swimming in the Winton stream. Today it is too polluted to swim in and this saddens me greatly. I support all efforts to bring our waterways back to how they were so that future generations can enjoy them as we once did. I do not believe that the greater Queenstown area needs to spawl as it is doing and is now in danger of causing pollution in sensitive areas such as Lake Hayes. Many houses have been built by owners to do short term rentals. This is not only a poor use of land and resources but has caused issues with people trying to rent. This may upset some owners, but I wish to change the rules on short term visitor accommodation so that it brings these houses back into either the long term rental pool or back into owner occupation. This will both help business that need staff, plus relieve pressure on the environment by not needing to build so many houses. Just think that say 1 hotel with 200 rooms vs building 200 houses. Hotels are for holidays and houses are for homes.
Q2a Do you consider the current Coronet Village Fast-Track application that includes 780 residences positive or negative?
Whether you believe in climate change or not, it is quite obvious (to me at least), that the natural snow on both Coronet and the Remarkables ski areas is getting worse. I am a skier and this year is particularly bad so far. I can see the day when these ski fields will be just too low to be able to get sufficient snow for skiing. My understanding is that the Coronet Village reasoning is to provide a village close to the ski field with good access. This would likely end up to be a ski village without a ski field. And so we would end up with unnecessary sprawl and the consequences of this. Once an area is built out, then you can never get the natural beauty back again. And so I see it as a negative.
Q2b Why do you say that?
Please read Q2A above.
Q3 What infrastructure would you like to see in place to address our traffic and sewerage issues in Queenstown? Please provide specific examples.
Sorry but this will be a bit of a long read. For the traffic congestion down Frankton road and in Queenstown itself, then I envisage a long term plan and then a medium term plan to get there. The idea is to allow locals to freely travel as they always have, but to remove excess traffic. In this case, excess traffic is visitor traffic plus locals making journeys because certain current infrastructure gives them little other choice.
So to begin with, I would put ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) cameras on Frankton road and Gorge road. Cars with local address, Buses and large trucks would enter freely. But other vehicles (visitors) would pay a congestion charge to enter. This income would then be used to build a Frankton parking facility and better public transport. This may even be one of the touted gondola systems (see Zermatt Switzerland as a similar example). Over time, the congestion charge is increased to encourage visitors onto these public transport systems or hotel provided transit buses etc. This will relieve congestion and also bring money and jobs from these tourists. Eventually, I would see this as a complete ban on visitor vehicles entering Queenstown. Queenstown would lose its charm if we ever tried to build our way out of congestion with more roads. This would just create more congestion further down the road with pollution and ugliness. Zermatt has it park and ride with a gondola system. Wengen has its park and ride with its historic train. Queenstown needs to do the same and have tourists leave their cars outside of Queenstown then get to enjoy its beauty going forward.
And then we come to why locals need to make so many car journeys. I live in Fernhill, and we have to drive down Frankton road to get to the major supermarkets. Town planning has put all of the shops and supermarkets and schools in one place then built sprawling residential areas where you are then forced to drive to these shopping areas. This is an outdated US model. I would like to see town planning look at the 15 minute city models of Europe where food shopping and schools etc are co-located with residential areas, thus removing the need for many of the current car journeys.
Queenstown has a vision to go green, and this can only be done by removing journeys as opposed to building roads for more and more traffic. Picturesque towns don't remain picturesque when they have motorways full of cars driving into them.
Regarding the sewerage scheme, I have been told that work is in place to fix the problem. But I am sceptical. I never wish to see sewerage being dumped into our beautiful waterways. This needs a long term plan with long term funding. But it also needs to be done right and not store up the same problem as today for the future. Until I am voted in and can see what the plans are, I cannot give specific details.
Kind regards,
Aaron Cowie
