A new bus depot is being proposed for a site near the eastern entrance to Wanaka.
The depot would be on part of a 6.6ha piece of land just east of the Albert Town turn-off, on the southern side of State Highway 6 next to the Cardrona River.
Alpine Connexions Ltd has applied to the Queenstown Lakes District Council to erect five buildings to be used for storing and servicing buses and for the company's administration.
A diesel tank would also be installed.
The depot would cater for 20 coaches, 20 vans, 20 trailers, two trucks, two earth-moving machines, three tractors and about 10 cars, plus staff parking.
It would be in use every day except Christmas Day.
The site and the bus company are owned by Peter King, of Cardrona Bridge No 1 Ltd.
The biggest building, to be used as a workshop and for parking five buses, would be 7m high, 35m long and 17m wide. Two others would each be 36m long and 9m wide.
The land is within a ''visual amenity landscape'' bounded by rural lifestyle and rural residential land.
The company's application noted the nearest neighbour was 50m away.
It had positioned the buildings at the rear of the site to make them less visible to traffic on the Wanaka-Luggate highway.
The land next to the highway would be used for agricultural purposes, and adverse visual effects would be mitigated by structural landscaping and building design ''in keeping with the rural vernacular''.
The application noted the depot would ''moderately detract'' from rural amenity values.
The land was regarded as flood prone, but Mr King said this week advice he had received was the buildings would be above the 500-year flood level.
The New Zealand Transport Agency had confirmed the potential for access to the depot from the highway but had not assessed the specific detail of the application.
The company, founded in 1989, provides bus services between Wanaka, Queenstown and Dunedin.
It operates from land in Aubrey Rd at present.
