Queenstown needs to learn from 30 years of mistakes by overseas resorts and plan well for affordable housing, an Australasian property conference in Queenstown has been told.
The comments came from Canadian planning consultant Michael Vance, who heads the planning of the new Remarkables Park development at nearby Frankton.
Affordable housing forthe local community - police, teachers, hospitality workers and nurses - was an absolute must, he said last week.
"Queenstown has to learn from the mistakes made by too many overseas resorts whose local workers have to live miles away from the resort in a some obscure valley or small town."
The distance wrecked a good relationship and community spirit within the resort, Mr Vance said.
"You need a good local community. You need children, older people - a settled everyday community. Visitors want locals around, it is very special to them."
After the conference Mr Vance said the very nature of a resort attracted hot property prices which meant it was too hard for local workers with young families to stay.
The conference was told commuters could be catching the ferry from Frankton to work in Queenstown by early 2006.
Remarkables Park managing director Alistair Porter outlined his vision and plans for the Remarkables Park development - a 149ha site at Frankton.
Fourteen precincts were planned, including a town centre, a Quayside village resort, hotel and conference facilities, with a ferry terminal linking Remarkables Park with downtown Queenstown, he said.
The 30 to 50-seater jet ferries with wide glass windows and glass roofs would offer a 10 to 15-minute scheduled service.
They would depart from the Queenstown waterfront and travel along Lake Wakatipu to the Kawarau River, arriving at the Remarkables Park ferry terminal.
A few weeks ago, when some consultants took the planned ferry route from Queenstown to the park terminal site, a woman from Auckland jokingly remarked that Remarkables Park needed to be a great destination just to live up to the "incredible ferry trip", Mr Porter said.
