A decision has been made for plan change 13, which went to an independent hearing, but the Central Otago District Council is withholding it until all costs of processing the application are paid.
The project is a private plan change for rezoning requested by River Terrace Developments Ltd to build a residential development on the outskirts of Cromwell.
River Terrace Developments Ltd is owned by property development company Winton.
Council planning and environment executive manager Louise van der Voort said it had a policy of 100% cost recovery for all resource consents and private plan changes so costs of private development were not borne by ratepayers.
Central Otago District Council chief executive Sanchia Jacobs said it was "disappointing" the applicant had not settled the costs.
Winton chief executive Chris Meehan said the company had paid $180,000 of the council’s costs and the balance owing of a further $260,000 was put in a trust account in "good faith".
Before this was paid it requested a full breakdown of how the council incurred the costs "given the significant quantum of the amount invoiced".
"These requests to CODC have been ongoing these last months. There are still large amounts of information outstanding."
The company was "pleased to work constructively" with the council during the process and had "no issue" covering all costs in order to get the decision released, he said.
Ms Jacobs said all of the company’s requests regarding how the costs were incurred were responded to "immediately".
The council had spoken to members of the company this week to try to resolve the issue, she said.
It was now considering "traditional debt recovery mechanisms", such as debt collectors, so the decision could be released.
"The ratepayer should not be responsible for funding private plan changes and we do not wish them to bear the burden of this cost should it not be paid."
However, she hoped it would not come to this.
The decision not only went to a hearings panel, but a lot of additional information was also needed, she said.
"I think the costs are an indication of the complexity and the length of time it took. What’s disappointing is that it’s of high community interest."
