Property developer fails in legal bid

A view across northlake plan change area. Photo by ODT.
A view across northlake plan change area. Photo by ODT.
One of the two property developers vying to have the Wanaka community swimming pool built in their part of the town has failed in a legal bid to have a public consultation document amended.

However, an appeal is still a possibility.

On Friday, Northlake Investments Ltd filed a High Court application for a judicial review of the document the Queenstown Lakes District Council had prepared for release yesterday.

Publication was delayed for a few hours, until after a hearing in the High Court at Christchurch yesterday afternoon.

The document is now on the council website.

It contains three location options for the pool - Northlake, Three Parks or Plantation Rd. Northlake lawyer Maree Baker-Galloway did not return calls yesterday afternoon but has previously argued the document did not fairly represent the company's proposal.

She told a council meeting earlier this month the document contained ''errors and important omissions''.

The council, which favours the Three Parks location, disagreed and yesterday chief executive Adam Feeley told the Otago Daily Times the High Court agreed with the council legal action was ''ill-conceived''.

''We were left scratching our heads as to both why they thought that [legal action] was necessary and how they could find any legal grounds for doing what they were doing.''

Mr Feeley said an appeal could be lodged but the council was ''assuming and hoping'' that would not be the case.

Mr Feeley said Northlake argued the presentation of the Northlake option ''broadly speaking wasn't fair or balanced and it misrepresented what they were proposing and the costs associated with it.''

''Our view was it was very fair and very balanced and that what Northlake was seeking was a level of editorial control over the presentation of their proposal that was neither reasonable nor lawful.''

Mr Feeley said although the council was not required to, it had provided the Auditor-general with a copy of the document to review on an ''informal basis'' to ensure it was balanced.

''And fundamentally, they didn't alert us to any issues''.

''We know there are two developers with a keen interest in it [the pool] and we have tried to be as even-handed as we could with both of them.''

Councillors, at their last meeting, indicated they wanted to make a decision before Christmas on which option they preferred.

The preface to the consultation document points out the council prefers an eight-lane lap pool and a learners' pool costing $11.8 million to be built at Three Parks, as part of stage one of the Wanaka Sports Facility.

The plan change allowing the 1352-lot Northlake subdivision includes a requirement on the developers to build a 20m-25m lap pool and other sports facilities there.

mark.price@odt.co.nz

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