A lawyer for Remarkables Park says the Queenstown Airport's noise management plan is a "moving feast", as late evidence and constant amendments to the plan by the airport corporation are keeping submitters "on the run".
"This situation should have never arisen. The Queenstown Airport Corporation should have laid out its case in full at the beginning of the hearing. That is accepted practice," Remarkables lawyer John Young told a Queenstown Lakes District Council-appointed hearings panel on Wednesday.
He also voiced concerns over proposed night flights at the airport as well as the QAC's proposed noise contours, which are based on land at Frankton yet to be acquired from Remarkables Park, which Mr Young described as an "unwilling seller".
Wednesday was the second day of the three-day hearing on plan change 35, which proposes to expand noise boundaries in all directions to allow for the airport's projected growth through to 2037.
If the change is approved, the airport's operating hours, which begin at 6am, will be extended by two hours to midnight.
QLDC planning officer Karen Page voiced her concerns about proposed night flights. She said the committee should adopt a "cautionary approach" and consider reducing the proposed number of night flights from 11 per week because she had not seen "much evidence" to justify that number of flights.
"Night flights are going to affect a significant number of people in the district, and not just in the air noise boundaries," she said.
Night flights would have "the greatest impact as opposed to the growth of noise boundaries - night flights will have an impact that most people will notice".
She said she supported the growth of the airport but not if it was "outweighed by the concerns of the community and residents".
Earlier, Air New Zealand infrastructure strategy manager Eric Morgan cited the success of Wellington Airport's independently chaired, consensus-driven, community-engaged Air Noise Management Committee as a benchmark model for a similar body mooted for Queenstown, provisionally dubbed the Airline Liaison Committee (ALC).
Remarkables Park planning consultant Michael Foster agreed community representation in Wellington and Auckland was a good example and lobbied the commission to have Remarkables Park - a "key affected party" - included on the liaison committee.
However, he warned the commission to keep members below eight or nine so the committee did not become unwieldy.
- Mat Stewart
