Queenstown’s council has agreed to lease some public reserve land to a holiday park operator for five years.
The land at the foot of Ben Lomond Reserve, an 8250sq m recreation reserve bordering Queenstown Cemetery and the Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park, will be leased to the latter’s owner Australian-owned company Hampshire Holiday Parks, from January 1 next year.
The lease was approved unanimously by councillors at a community and environment committee meeting on Tuesday.
They were told by parks property planner Matthew Judd that Hampshire had requested the lease because campsites for tents, caravans and camper vans were in “very high demand” in central Queenstown throughout the year.
The lease would not only provide extra camping capacity, but generate some income for the council, Judd said.
The reserve wasn’t part of the ongoing Lakeview development, but adjoining land already leased by Hampshire for the Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park was expected to be developed in seven years.
Public use of the land would be “minimal” until the Lakeview development eventually created a residential population close by.
Hampshire would build an amenities block — which would be removed at the end of the lease — and provide power and parking spaces for each campsite.
Pedestrian access through the site would not be affected.
Mr Judd noted the council had publicly notified its intention to grant the lease in August, and received no submissions.
Hampshire bought the leasehold interest in the Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park and four other campgrounds in the district in 2023.