A proponent of a proposed polo facility near Queenstown says the million-dollar venture would provide ongoing and wide-ranging economic benefits to the resort.
At a resource consent hearing in Queenstown yesterday before commissioners Bob Nixon and Denis Nugent, TJ Investments Pte Ltd shareholder Jonathan Gabler said he and his partner, Lynley Fong, had committed to spending at least $1million developing the polo facilities planned for an 84.96ha site in Malaghans Rd.
Queenstown Lakes District Council senior planner Anita Vanstone recommended the consent be refused on the basis the development - including two polo fields, a clubhouse, stables, and a barn - was more ''akin to developments in the rural residential zone''.
Ms Vanstone said the level of development planned ''pushes the site beyond its threshold to absorb development''; the buildings, enclosed by post-and-rail fencing, would result in more than minor adverse effects to the rural character of the site; and granting the consent would set a precedent.
Mr Gabler said he and Ms Fong had entered a sale and purchase agreement for the land on terms and conditions that included obtaining all consents and permits to operate the polo facility.
If they did not receive consent, his understanding was the vendor would go ahead with a previously approved subdivision with four rural residential sections.
Mr Gabler, originally from Australia but living in Singapore with Ms Fong and their two children, said the couple were experienced in the polo industry and owned polo stables in Pilar, Argentina.
The planned development in Queenstown would become, they believed, ''the southernmost polo facility in the world''.
Mr Gabler said minimum staffing levels were a full-time property/operations/polo manager; a seasonal polo professional for about 30 weeks a year; and a seasonal polo groom, also working about 30 weeks a year.
He anticipated players would come from overseas. There would probably be downstream benefits to other businesses.
''This facility would also assist in international tourism to New Zealand during the `shoulder tourist seasons'.''
There were plans to tap into an established network of international polo festivals and offer something complementary but different in Queenstown, which would probably achieve ''strong international coverage'' in polo magazines and had the potential to attract new residents to the resort.
Within the first two years, Mr Gabler said, they planned to create the two fields, arenas, half the stables and select paddocks.
Within five years, the clubhouse would be developed.
Ultimately, they planned to hold up to seven tournaments in Queenstown around other major events. The hearing was adjourned.
