Commissioner Louise Taylor heard evidence at a resource consent hearing last week for a property at 43 Shortcut Rd, in Cromwell.
Owners Jun Hou and Lihua Zhang were represented by their son Jackie Hou, the resident manager for the complex consisting of nine residential units.
In 2018, the Central Otago District Council granted a non-notified resource consent for 19 units on the 475sq m site. NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi was considered to be the only affected party.
In 2022, the consent was revised to allow for 22 units with four three-bedroom units becoming six two-bedroom units. That change was also non-notified.
In April, the council received a complaint that the units were being used for travellers’ accommodation. Council officers advised the owners to remove all listings for the activity by May 25. That was not done and an abatement notice was issued on June 6.
The owners then made an application to use the property for travellers’ accommodation. On June 27, the council decided the application would be processed on a limited notification process involving one neighbour across Shortcut Rd and those on a next-door private road.
At the hearing, neighbours said they would have objected to the style of property if they had the opportunity initially.
Twelve submissions were made to the application. One was neutral and the others called on the council to reject the application.
Their submissions highlighted lack of parking at the property, noise and loss of the character of the area.
People staying in the accommodation brought trailers with recreational equipment or work gear and parked on the street as they could not fit in the parking at the address.
Neighbouring property owner Elizabeth Thomas said she had twice reported to police people banging on her door during the night and had seen people climbing the dividing fence and taking a short cut across her property.
She had chosen the property for her retirement as she enjoyed gardening and spent most of her time outside. Her sense of companionship, safety, wellbeing and privacy was being eroded, she said.
Two years after the buildings were completed there was still building debris visible on the property and amenity landscaping had not been completed.
There was also a risk that permitting the application would create a precedent for stages two and three of the development to be used as traveller accommodation, resulting in more than 70 people staying there, she said.
Another neighbour said they had to listen to people swearing over parking, noise from parties and looking at unprofessional, unfinished premises and rubbish at the property.
Mr Hou said he would be living on site as manager and offered a guest management plan and a landscape plan, which included parking for two trailers and fencing.
There was a shortage of accommodation in Cromwell for people working for short periods and he was helping with that, Mr Hou said.
There was a mix of long and short-term arrangements at the complex.
He said when the complex was completed he would like to use all the units in the complex for travellers’ accommodation.
The decision was reserved but it was expected before Christmas.
