The area surrounding a vineyard at Pisa Moorings could be subdivided into 82 sections, helping to supply demand for residential plots in the Cromwell area.
Pisa Moorings Vineyard Ltd applied for resource consent for 86 allotments on a 16ha site it owns on State Highway 6 and Pisa Moorings Rd.
It will be discussed by the Central Otago District Council hearings panel on May 10.
If successful, 82 of the proposed lots would be used for residential purposes, two would be made into council reserves, one into a road and one 7ha lot would remain its vineyard.
The applicants previously had consent to subdivide the area into 36 allotments, but that has now lapsed.
As the vineyard and one of the proposed residential lots lie in a rural resource area, the plans conflict with a rule in the district plan which says allotments cannot be less than 2ha.
Two of the proposed allotments are also considered flood-prone, so their subdivision is considered a discretionary activity which requires resource consent.
The proposed residential lots are between 600m2 and 1380m2, except for one larger 2400m2 allotment.
Council planning consultant David Whitney said in a report effects of this proposal on open space, landscape, natural character and amenity values would be no more than minor.
He recommended the panel grant consent to the application subject to 45 conditions.
One is for the floor of buildings on flood-prone allotments to be at least 203m above sea level.
If granted, consent would lapse in June 2026.
Earlier this month, the Otago Daily Times reported Cromwell Community Board member Gordon Stewart, a real estate agent for about 25 years and property developer, saying at a board meeting three weeks ago anyone wanting to build a home in the town probably had a choice of two or three sections.
"We have to have a serious look at where the whole town is going [to grow].''
