Local boaties responsible Drinking alcohol while driving boats is not an issue in Wanaka or Hawea, according to QLDC Harbourmaster Marty Black. “Not as far as I’m aware,” he said. “We’ve had nothing at all like that here this year.” PAGE 3
One-on-one with the WCB Topics ranged from downtown cycle lanes, to clashing events, to tall trees, at the first one-on-one session between the new chair of the Wanaka Community Board and local residents. PAGE 5
THUR 20.02.14 - WED 26.02.14
WANAKA’S INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
inside:
Pups to help epileptics PAGE 4
Back to preschool PAGE 7
Stand up paddle boarding (SUP to those in the know) is taking off in Wanaka and one of the favourite places to SUP is down the Clutha River. Pictured is former Wanaka Sun journalist Tim Brewster enjoying an early morning paddle on the river below Dean’s Bank. PHOTO: WANAKA.TV
Amnesty for illegal holiday home rentals Wanaka athletes win Coast to Coast PAGE 16
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Jessica Maddock Wanaka Sun Wanaka residents and holiday home owners accommodating short-term paying guests while dodging rates have three months to come forward, or the council will endeavour to track them down. Under the Queenstown Lakes District Plan, ratepayers must register their home or holiday house if they use it to provide short-term accommodation for paying guests, or obtain resource consent, depending on the extent of the activity.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council’s Chief Financial Officer, Stewart Burns, said, as of November 2013, about 350 properties districtwide had been registered as providing some form of short-term accommodation for paying guests. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that doubled” as a result of the threemonth amnesty, he said. “We have evidence that some ratepayers are taking in short-term paying visitors without the correct registrations or consents.” The council was giving ratepayers until the end of May to either register their property or obtain resource
consent, depending on which was required. It would then beef up its efforts to monitor advertisements for shortterm accommodation online and in local publications, to ensure the properties advertised were on its database of registered or consented commercial visitor accommodation. It was free to register a property, but if a resource consent was required, the cost varied depending on the circumstances. Once registered or consented, a property’s rates would change from residential to mixed use and, as a result, increase by about 25
percent, which in Wanaka and Queenstown equated to around $500 to $600 a year. Stewart Burns said property owners profiting from renting out houses, apartments and rooms on a short-term basis had to pay their way. Not doing so was unfair to official commercial visitor accommodation providers who paid higher rates, some of which went toward funding Lake Wanaka Tourism and Destination Queenstown. Story continues page 2...