Council may allow more supermarkets

AFTER years of being a onesupermarket town, Wanaka seems destined to have three.

Queenstown Lakes District Council planners are recommending the council adopt private plan change 53 at its meeting tomorrow.

If it does, the developers of the 220ha Northlake housing area will be able to include a supermarket of up to 1250sq m — 250sq m less than requested.

The plan change will more than double the size of the commercial area, and it will also enable a retirement home to be established.

When completed, the Northlake development will have about 1520 homes.

The recommendation from senior planner, policy, Sarah Picard and general manager, planning and development, Tony Avery follows a hearing conducted by commissioners David Whitney, David Mead and Cr Scott Stevens.

Ms Picard’s report also recommends the council adopt a hearing panel recommendation to delete a rule requiring Northlake to build a 20m indoor lap pool, a gym, a children’s play area and at least one tennis court.

In her report, Ms Picard said the hearings panel recommended the deletion ‘‘on the basis that some of the facilities have been, or are to be provided by the applicant.

‘‘The hearings panel also accepted that a swimming pool is no longer a prerequisite associated with development at Northlake because the council has constructed and operates an indoor swimming pool at Three Parks.

‘‘During the hearing, the appli cant confirmed that Northlake have provided a tennis court and playground.

‘‘A gym is proposed to be constructed by way of resource consent.’’

A spokeswoman for the council told the Otago Daily Times yesterday that deleting the rule would allow the developers to remove the tennis court.

Wanaka has one New World supermarket in the CBD and Foodstuffs South Island announced in October last year it planned to build another in the Three Parks subdivision next year.