Issue #973

by James Hall, Malaghans Valley Protection Society Chairman

On the surface, Fast-Track might look like a good way to get things moving across New Zealand. But in reality, it is a side door for developer-led expansion that bypasses our opinions and dreams for our place. This Fast-Track framework almost guarantees approvals.

Last week, there were nine developments approved for Fast-Track around the Queenstown Lakes and I have to ask, what was the point of submitting on spatial plans, climate action plans, long-term plans, regenerative tourism plans, if it’s all for naught? It is disempowering and disheartening. Planned growth has been swapped for opportunistic development.

Coronet Village along Malaghans Valley is a case in point. It’s essentially a new town in a valley renowned by locals and tourists for its stunning rural scenery and is also a growing area for astrophotography more commonly known as Dark Sky. It is in a rural corridor, there are no services in the area, so connections to power, drinking water, wastewater and stormwater will need to be made and will create extra load on a system barely coping. The roading system in and around Malaghans Valley cannot manage another housing estate of almost 800 homes located there.

With infrastructure struggling to keep up with growth, roads under strain and bridges at or over capacity, and massive rates increases, is this the best way for New Zealand to be using Fast-Track? For scattergun development that ends up costing us all in the long run?

A horrifying aspect of having Coronet Village in Malaghans Valley is that wastewater would be discharged to the ground and as the land is in the upper catchment, it would flow downstream into Lake Hayes. Infesting the headwaters of the Mill Creek catchment with intensive housing is a major step backward for the lake.

To be frank, I think there needs to be a much bigger discussion about what we want Queenstown to be like in the future and where we draw the line with growth. People also need to be accountable for their projects and plans rather than using a “work-around” like Fast-Track. We live in a democracy, right? The time, effort and cost that has been put into Fast-Tracking would have been better spent accelerating fixing the Resource Management Act (RMA) for the long term.

I chair the Malaghans Valley Protection Society (MVPS) and I urge you to join our society and help stop Coronet Village. We’re not anti-development; we are pro-development that makes sense: www.mvps.nz.

There is growing discontent and concern about other opportunistic Fast-Tracks across the district too, so please use your democratic rights and check them out as well.