Inadequate consultation on plan change: SPL

The landowner at the centre of an Environment Court hearing which could enable the building of one of the largest retail centres in New Zealand has submitted the council did not adequately consult the community.

Shotover Park Ltd (SPL), owner of Frankton Flats near the Queenstown Events Centre, is disputing the Queenstown Lakes District Council's plan to change the land use from rural to a "regional town centre".

In his submission to Judge Jane Borthwick in the Environment Court in Queenstown, lawyer Ron Somerville, on behalf of Shotover Park Ltd, said a regional town centre "was never an intended outcome" for what is known as plan change 19.

"The public notices did not mention a regional town centre. The purpose of the plan change did not refer to the establishment of a regional town centre or even make specific reference to retailing activities."

Mr Somerville said the council's notified plan change had not addressed a regional town centre as an option for the land use and therefore the public had not been properly consulted on the issue.

"The way to establish a regional town centre is not by incremental or ad hoc zone changes without any strategic foundation resulting from discussions with the community."

In a report filed by Dunedin architect Timothy Heath this month, it was said the proposed centre could be about 75,000sq m and potentially "one of the largest retail destinations in the country", larger than Westfield Riccarton in Christchurch and Sylvia Park in Auckland.

The centre could double Wakatipu's retail land between 2011 and 2026.

The council's plan change 19 had divided the land into five different activity areas: an open space buffer to protect views, a limited development buffer (a transition area with height restrictions and proposed 15% cover), the village centre (commercial, business and residential area), an industrial yard-style activity area and an industrial area.

While the Shotover Park Ltd evidence claimed the regional town centre would have detrimental effects on its sister development the Remarkables Park Town Centre and Queenstown's retail centre, Queenstown Lakes District Council counsel Jayne MacDonald said these were overstated.

Given Shotover Park Ltd promoted specific types of retailing on its land, caution needed to be exercised by the court when it considered the retail debate, she said.

"These claims are in the nature of trade competition," she said.