More than six years after it was first mooted, a new information centre for Cromwell has official approval.
The last hurdle the Central Otago District Council needed to jump was an appeal to the Environment Court by Shona Rae, who has a business next to where the new centre would be built. She lodged an appeal in May, claiming an unfair process had been followed after part of an earlier submission she made was ''lost in the system''.
She said independent commissioner Denis Nugent did not have all the information before him when, in April, he backed his interim decision of 2012 and granted conditional consent to the council, which had applied to itself for the consent.
When Mr Nugent made his interim decision, he asked the council for more information on aspects including car-parking arrangements and landscaping. That lack of information was another aspect of Mrs Rae's appeal and she suggested the consent process be restarted.
''I feel the whole consent was of a poor standard, especially when it has been done by a council to apply to itself for a change of land use. Not a good example for others,'' her appeal read.
In a consent order released yesterday, Environment Court judge Jon Jackson allowed Mrs Rae's appeal in part. He ordered one of the conditions of the resource consent be amended to include the requirement for a pedestrian crossing between Murray Tce and the centre but otherwise dismissed the appeal.
He also noted the council agreed to instigate a review of car-parking demands in the mall and surrounding areas. Car parking was a concern of some early submitters as the centre would be built over existing parks.
Central Otago visitor centres manager Pam Broadhead said the decision was ''excellent'' news. She said it was not likely the $1.3 million price tag would change much, if at all, but that would need to be checked and she would report to council, probably at its December meeting.
The existing information centre is in the Cromwell mall and the plan is to build one closer to State Highway 8B, near the fruit sculpture, so tourists can find it more easily.
Before Mr Nugent considered the consent application in 2012, eight submissions were received on the subject, three in support, two neutral and three opposed, including Mrs Rae's.
The new centre would breach district plan rules concerning minimum floor area, maximum building height and the total area of signs allowed per site.
There were 13 conditions imposed with the consent, including restricting what could be sold at the centre to Central Otago-branded products, souvenirs, small travellers' items, special-interest books on the area, travel guides and pamphlets, and phone cards, stamps and postcards.
Other conditions concerned signs, a footpath and parking, and limited the use of the land and building to that of a visitor information centre.
The project has been deferred several times due to cost and the need to link it with the planned town centre redevelopment, which was first mooted more than a decade ago.
The $1 million first stage of that redevelopment, landscaping the northern entrance to the mall, is expected to be completed next month.
The reconstruction of the Lode Lane toilets tied in with that stage but was a separate project.
