Counsel for the Central Otago District Council, Jan Caunter, told commissioners considering a plan change that would allow the development, that the council opposed the application in its entirety and asked that the commissioners refuse it.
Ms Caunter said Winton Group chief executive Chris Meehan was ''a lay witness'' with a ''vested financial interest in the outcome of the hearing''.
''He is not an expert witness.''
Mr Meehan is seeking the plan change to allow Winton Group and its company River Terrace Development Ltd to build the residential development on land zoned rural and rural residential 3km from the Cromwell town centre.
Ms Caunter said there were a number of ''very well qualified'' experts who had challenged the reasons Mr Meehan put forward for the development to proceed.
''These experts are expert, they are objective and they are appropriately qualified in their respective disciplines.''
Ms Caunter was giving evidence on the second day of a reconvened hearing into plan change 13.
The commissioners panel is Gary Rae (chairman), Gavin Lister and David McMahon.
In her submission yesterday, Ms Caunter also rejected claims made by Mr Meehan and his counsel Warwick Goldsmith, that the purpose of the plan change was to provide and enable 900 new, affordable homes to address a ''housing crisis''.
She said the council accepted there was a need for more housing, but did not accept there was a housing crisis or that plan change 13 would address the housing issue better than the public process the council was undertaking.
Ms Caunter asked the commissioners to treat the whole approach to affordability with absolute caution.
''It is a distraction.
''There is no evidence to support the proponent's assertions that affordable housing is even an issue, nor is there credible evidence that it can deliver on its promise of affordable housing.''
In his evidence as a witness for the council, Rationale Ltd managing director and principal infrastructure adviser Edward Guy said plan change 13 was inconsistent with the Cromwell master plan.
Through his involvement with key stakeholders and the community on the master plan process, he said people felt that focusing the future growth within the existing Cromwell township would ''bring the town back to life''.
He said the community feedback was that further sprawling development on the Cromwell's outskirts would continue an ad hoc approach and affect the town's aesthetics.
Mr Guy said the council had commissioned his company to undertake a high-level housing affordability study in January last year and it concluded Cromwell was ''on the cusp of an affordability issue''.
However, he said evidence suggested that Mr Goldsmith's claim of a housing crisis was unsubstantiated.
The hearing continues.
