The National Party's crisis talks on Wednesday morning scuppered a planned regional deal announcement in Queenstown at the last minute.

MPs and local leaders were due to unveil a 10-year plan for managing the region's growth after months of negotiations between government officials and representatives from Queenstown Lakes District Council, Central Otago District Council and Otago Regional Council.

But the plan was cancelled after the National Party caucus was called to the capital.

Walking into Parliament for the leadership vote, Southland MP Joseph Mooney told media he would rather be in Queenstown marking the deal.

A new announcement date is yet to be confirmed.

RMA Reform Under-Secretary Simon Court of the ACT Party organised a round-table infrastructure discussion in Queenstown in place of the planned announcement.

He said he was disappointed by the delay, but expected the deal to go ahead within weeks.

"The ACT Party can't control what National is doing right now. I'm sure that they will come to a resolution and we'll get back around the table with the mayors and other representatives from Queenstown and Central Otago and we'll sign the deal," Court said.

Queenstown mayor John Glover said he was also disappointed, but understood why the signing had to be rescheduled.

"It was a signing ceremony which had two ministers of the Crown - because it is a legal contract between the council and the Crown. So it was an in-person signing ceremony and circumstances changed," he said.

"For me, the sooner we get this signed the better - because if this deal had been in place five or ten years ago, I think we'd have had a more coordinated approach across all of government to provide a response to the needs that we're having as we grow."

The deal comes amid mounting infrastructure challenges for the region, in particular Queenstown which has recorded explosive growth in visitors and population.

Last month Glover announced he was setting up a mayoral taskforce to tackle severe peak-time traffic congestion, while the head of the regional tourism organisation warned the district was not equipped to handle further growth.

This week Glover and Auckland mayor Wayne Brown wrote to Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop with concerns about "out-of-sequence, out-of-zone" greenfield housing developments being fast-tracked.

The letter was a request to meet and discuss the impacts, Glover said.

Glover also attended a community meeting earlier this month about Ridgeburn, a planned 1210-home development near Arrowtown.

The development sits outside the council's planned growth zones and some residents fear it will exacerbate traffic congestion and harm tourism.

"Locally we know that our existing infrastructure really hasn't kept place with the growth. We have a long chat this morning about building more houses, and we're doing a lot of that. But the schools, the health services, the state highways, the public transport - they're all way, way behind where they should be," Glover said.

"The concern is that there will be consented quite significant housing developments without the tools to develop the infrastructure."

It was not just Wayne Brown who shared those concerns, he said.

"If you look at the Pegasus development [near Christchurch] with a 16,000 person petition against it - there's some huge concerns around the country."

Queenstown needed to ensure growth did not come at the expense of its community and lifestyle, Glover said.