Queenstown's Fernhill Sunshine Bay Community Association’s deeply disappointed the developer behind a massive, controversial development planned for their neighbourhood has not met with them.
Australia-based developer Guy Hingston, a renowned breast cancer surgeon, however, says his Queenstown diary — he has a holiday home in the area — so far has not aligned with the association’s monthly meeting time.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop last week accepted a fast-track referral application by Hingston’s Bowen Peak Ltd for its Powerhouse development.
It includes a three-stage aerial ropeway network, a large residential subdivision, Fernhill Heights, predator-free sanctuaries and native revegetation and a mountain bike park and ski area on Bowen Peak.
The company’s first referral application was returned in February last year as incomplete and its second was turned down by Bishop last August.
For this latest stab, two funicular railway lines have been replaced by three contiguous aerial ropeways.
Responding to this latest proposal being accepted for the next planning stage of the fast-track approvals process, Fernhill Sunshine Bay Community Association, on its Facebook page, expresses concern they have not been contacted by Bowen Peak Ltd concerning its proposal at any stage.
"We find it deeply disappointing that a development of this scale and significance to the local community has proceeded without any direct engagement with our association, which exists to represent the interests and wellbeing of residents in the Fernhill and Sunshine Bay areas.
"Meaningful consultation is a fundamental expectation in developments of this nature, and its absence undermines both transparency and community trust."
Hingston tells Mountain Scene: "I keep trying to attend their monthly meetings, as they meet very close to our Queenstown home, but sadly, despite several legitimate attempts on my behalf to do so, I have not yet been able to align my Queenstown timetable with their own meeting timetable."
He says he will continue to make every effort to meet with the association ASAP "as their feedback and input will now be even more important as we prepare the substantive phase of our fast-track application".
Hingston stresses they are continuing to seek community feedback via the Facebook page on the project’s website, bowenpeak.co.nz
