Developers are hoping to begin work on a 118-lot residential development in Mosgiel next year, but want some of the properties to be smaller than allowed in the Dunedin district plan.
Resource consent has been requested by Allan and Martin Dippie, of Otago Business Park Ltd, who have argued rules for the land are too restrictive, and limit choice for homeowners.
The Mosgiel application is for subdivision of land off Gladstone Rd North, to be developed in three stages, on land zoned residential 6.
Under residential 6 zoning, sites must be no less than 1000sq m.
The application asks for 44 of the sites to be smaller than that, with the rest ranging up to 7130sq m.
Consultant Allan Cubitt's application also sought consent for smaller yards for the sites than the minimum 9m for front yards and 6m for rear and sides.
Instead, those sections would have a minimum 4.5m front and 2m side and rear yards.
Mr Cubitt said in his application the overall density of the site would be 118 dwellings on 20ha, an average area of 1765sq m, 76% larger than the minimum site size required.
The permitted baseline, or what was allowed by right on the site, was about 225 dwellings.
The smallest dwelling site would be 680sq m, and the largest 7130sq m.
Allan Dippie, of Wanaka, said he hoped to begin the development in the first part of next year.
"I'm keen to get cracking now we're seeing some spark in the residential market."
For some people, a 1000sq m property was too big, and he wanted to provide more choice in the properties available, both in size and cost.
The application said the large yard setbacks required promoted poor design and ineffective development by restricting the buildable area to long, narrow areas in the middle of the site.
Mr Dippie described the rule as "crazy" for properties of that size, as it restricted homeowners' ability to build where they wanted on their site.
He said so far, in similar situations, people had got around the rule by applying for building consent to do so, but he wanted a global consent for the development.
Dunedin City Council resource consents manager Alan Worthington said there had already been inquiries about the consent, and he expected there would be plenty of public interest in the application.
Submissions on the application close on December 11.
Allan Dippie is director of Willowridge Developments Ltd, the company behind the Three Parks proposal, a development on 100ha of land in Wanaka that would create a secondary commercial retail area in the town.
He is also one of five directors of the Cromwell Motorsport Park Trust Ltd, which is behind a proposed $20 million motorsport park at Cromwell.
