Adam Feeley also gave his strongest indication a planned $70million convention centre might not proceed because of ''funding issues''.
Mr Feeley, former head of the Serious Fraud Office, handed in his three-month notice earlier this week.
''It's a challenging community in some respects in terms of litigation.
''Having worked in Wellington, Auckland and London, some of the people and their style of doing business is a real challenge.
''It's a relatively confrontational business environment at times.''
The council has been embroiled in Environmental Court battles over land surrounding Queenstown Airport.
It also been at loggerheads over the proposed convention centre, both with sections of the public and private interests such as the Porter Group.
Restraints imposed by the Local Government Act also made progress hard going, both for the convention centre and opening up town centre land for development, Mr Feeley said.
''The Local Government Act is very much centred around community consultation and everyone's got their view whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
''Consultation permeates it, so the bigger the decision, the more consultation and the more depth to the consultation.''
The excitement generated by a council-backed centre could have kept him in the job, Mr Feeley said.
''I suppose at the moment with litigation over plan change 50 and funding issues over the convention centre if you were a pessimist you might think there's a risk that one or both won't go ahead.''
There were many reasons why he had handed in his notice, but a new job was not one of them, Mr Feeley said.
He had irons in the fire and was considering options, he said.
Having never spent more than a few years in one role, he would be be looking for something different and challenging, he said.
Mr Feeley, who began his reign with a shake-up that cut a third of full-time-equivalent posts, is calling for a safe pair of hands, saying he would ''love'' an internal appointment from the team he had created.
