Land deal honoured 51 years later
AFTER more than 50 years, a deal done by the former Queenstown borough council and the Crown appears ready to be completed.
In a report to last week’s full Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting, property director Quinton Howard said land from 53 to 61 Stanley St, home to the Queenstown Playcentre, was to be vested as local purpose reserve, for a community centre and car parking.
The land — which neighbours the site the former Queenstown Arts Centre building sits on — was originally for education, acquired by the Crown in the late 1950s from three separate landowners, including George Hood, under the Public Works Act 1928.
At that stage it was for the expansion of Queenstown School.
However, by the late 1960s the school had outgrown its site — Queenstown Primary School was relocated to Robins Rd, on former ‘‘domain land’’ in 1975 — but the existing property was used by Queenstown High School until it was also relocated, to Gorge Rd, opening there in 1980.
Mr Howard said in return for the domain land being vested in the Crown, it was agreed the Crown would vest the Stanley St school land to the council when it was no longer required for education.
After the high school was relocated, the theneducation minister confirmed the ongoing requirement for part of the Stanley St school land for education purposes, including the subject land, for Queenstown Playcentre.
The balance was released and vested with council.
Then, in 2003, descendants of Mr Hood brought a case in the High Court against the Crown, seeking an offer back in line with the Public Works Act 1981.
But both the High Court and Court of Appeal felt that would be unreasonable and unfair in light of the earlier agreement with the council.
The Supreme Court declined the Hood family leave to appeal.
Since then, the council had been working with the Crown to declare the land surplus and vest the playcentre land as local purpose reserve.
‘‘Both parties have agreed to a process to honour the 1971 agreement,’’ Mr Howard said.
The playcentre is due to be relocated to Queenstown Primary School and once that happened, the site would no longer be required for education.
Mr Howard said the council planned to use the land, once vested, as part of an ‘‘interim central Queenstown car park’’.
Longerterm, it would form part of the Project Manawa civic and cultural hub development.
However, when asked by Cr Niki Gladding, property and infrastructure planning general manager Pete Hansby said, at present, the council did not have ‘‘sufficient budget’’ to construct the car park.
‘‘We will need to bring something back to council to seek approval for the dollars to proceed with that work,’’ he said.
During last Thursday’s meeting, Mayor Jim Boult said the council and community owed a ‘‘tip of the hat’’ to former mayor Warren Cooper who had kept historical documentation confirming the deal was done with the government in the 1970s.