McDonald’s has received approval to build a 450-square-metre 24-hour restaurant with a drive-through in Wānaka.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council has finalised its approval, granting resource consent for a McDonald’s restaurant in the Three Parks commercial precinct on Sir Tim Wallis Drive.
This comes after a prior unsuccessful attempt to secure approval for a restaurant in a rural-zoned area along the highway leading into the Mt Iron township, where plans faced strong local opposition.
Nearly 93% of the 366 public submissions opposed the initial application, with concerns centred on the project’s visual and aesthetic impact on the town, litter generation, and threats to the area’s natural environmental values.
The latest proposal gained approval on a non-notified basis under the Resource Management Act, bypassing public consultation.
However, some concerns persist.
“There’s no question that McDonald’s generates a lot of litter, probably more than most food providers. That remains a concern for a lot of people,” Queenstown-Lakes deputy mayor Quentin Smith said.
“We just hope that when they do come here, they’re socially responsible operators, and they do work hard to keep that under control.”
Meanwhile, McDonald’s expressed pleasure at receiving resource consent for the Three Parks site.
“We will now move on to the next stage of development and construction planning. As it stands, we are hopeful of opening the McDonald’s Wānaka restaurant in the next 12 months,” it said.
For council senior planner Ian Bayliss, the waste generation impacts from the proposal on the broader environment were deemed “no more than minor.” He said shifting the planned site to a commercial zone went a long way toward addressing other concerns.
“The visibility and the character of Mt Iron and the entrance to Wānaka on a rural site were legitimate things that were considered under that previous application. They were largely the reasons it failed.”