THE GLENORCHY MARKETPLACE PROJECT UPDATE

Jun 11, 2015

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QLDC Resource Consent Rulings on Camp Glenorchy 
Support Environmentally Sustainable Master Plan

Glenorchy, New Zealand, 08 June 2015

The Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) announced the ruling by the independent hearing commissioners for the development of Camp Glenorchy, an environmentally sustainable campground that includes tenting, campervan sites, shared bunk cabins and supporting commons buildings.  Following a formal submission period for input from the community this autumn and a two-day hearing in Queenstown in May, the hearing commissioners have ruled in favour of the project.  As a result, the QLDC has issued the resource consent, subject to a number of agreed-upon conditions.
 


“Our decision to volunteer for notified consent was based on our desire to continue to work closely with the community of Glenorchy and to invite open dialog into the process,” explained Paul Brainerd, director of Pounamu Holdings, which owns the land on which Camp Glenorchy will be built.  “We worked cooperatively with council staff and the local community to make modifications where necessary and are gratified by the commissioners’ agreement with our plans, including building heights and setbacks.”
 


The majority of both the written and verbal testimony from the community submitted to QLDC supported the project.  After careful review of evidence submitted, the commissioners concluded, "Overall, we were satisfied that the establishment of the Camp Glenorchy facility will provide significant positive benefits to the local community and the surrounding area."



Camp Glenorchy is phase one of a three-phase, multi-year project whose working name is Glenorchy Marketplace Project. The project, to be built adjacent to the previous 40-year-old holiday park at the head of Lake Wakatipu in Glenorchy, is currently in the design and consenting stage.  Ideas and input from over 350 locals, tourist operators and visitors have been shaping the design of the master plan to meet the needs of both the community and tourists who visit Glenorchy.  Camp Glenorchy will be New Zealand’s first Net Zero energy campground.
 


The commissioners noted, "We think it is self-evident that the establishment of Camp Glenorchy would have significant positive effects in that it would reinstate, in a modern and sustainable form, a camping ground facility that had since closed.  It will have the effect of providing at least modest opportunities for employment, and there are likely to be significant economic benefits to the wider Glenorchy business and tourism community from patrons of the facility utilising local services.  It will also provide facilities for meetings and education, which is of benefit to the wider community".  



The decision from the commissioners continued, "One of the substantive positive effects is the active promotion of leading edge sustainable and environmentally sensitive building and land management practices, which is a conerstone philosophy of the development.  This is expected to be of significant benefit not only to the local community and tourists to the development, but to New Zealanders as a whole."
 


All profits from the Glenorchy Marketplace Project and Camp Glenorchy will flow to an independent community trust, directed by local residents, to support community projects.  

For more information about the three-phase project, visit www.glenorchymarketplace.co.nz
 

For further information contact:

Contact: Steve Hewland 
steve@glenorchymarketplace.co.nz


021 942 099