A resource consent application has been lodged to construct a watersports facility on the banks of Lake Wanaka at the western end of Roys Bay within the Roys Bay Recreation reserve, by the Wanaka Watersports Facility Trust.
The proposal is for a 420 sq m building which is 6m high and clad in cedar and steel. It is to be nestled alongside two protected sequoia trees, with additional planting to be completed after the removal of 10 existing trees. A consultant landscape architect hired by the group commented that the “building would be widely visible but the the landscape has the potential to absorb the potential development”.
The facilities are to include equipment storage, a gym, changing rooms and outside the building there is to be bike racks, wash down areas and publicly accessible toilets.
Sports catered for by this development include all non motorized sports including rowing, kayaking, paddle boarding, swimming and multi-sports.
The proposal is being met with both support and opposition from the community. The Watersports group has spent a number of years on the proposal and considered eight other lakeside sites including preparing concept plans for three. These were in the end deemed to lack feasibility for both site related and safety factors.
A group called the Wanaka-Hawea Reserves Trust has been launched to oppose the plans to have a building on the Wanaka foreshore on the basis of the buildings location within a designated area of outstanding natural landscape and the scope of the building. The application has A notification period for public submissions up until December 10th.