A proposed multimillion-dollar, 52-lot subdivision on the corner of Aubrey Rd and Outlet Rd, announced this week, will continue to provide public access to Sticky Forest, Hikuwai Reserve and the Clutha River outlet, project manager Brett Thomson says.
Mr Thomson confirmed yesterday the developer, East Wanaka Land Trust Holdings, was also working with neighbouring landowners Shaun Gilbertson and the Cleugh family, as well as Wanaka councillors and community board members, to meet objectives for the Aubrey Rd inner and outer town growth boundary zones, as laid out in the Wanaka structure plan.
However, the zone change needed to achieve those boundaries could take 18 months to two years.
East Wanaka Land Trust Holdings was keen to start the project sooner, so had applied for resource consent, Mr Thomson said.
The application was a "stepping stone" to achieving the objectives of the structure plan, which would see part of the land fall into a new urban landscape protection zone.
Mr Thomson last week met Wanaka councillors John S.
Wilson and Lyal Cocks, as well as structure plan working party members, to check that the developer's consent application was in line with the council's "strategic direction".
Mr Thomson said he had also talked to Mr Gilbertson and the Cleugh family about plans for their land and they had demonstrated a willingness to maintain access links through each other's property, the Kirimoko block and to other reserves.
Mr Thomson has also sent information out to nearby residents explaining the background to the development.
The large 178ha block is held in two titles, with one zone rural residential and the other in the rural general zone.
The former owners, the Urquhart family, farmed the land but also allowed mountain biking and walking access.
That access continued, with permission, after the land was sold several years ago to Coastal Land Trust Holdings Ltd.
That company's directors are golf course designer John Darby, of Arrowtown, and Queenstown businessman George Kerr.
In May 2006, the company obtained resource consent for a 64-lot subdivision, squeezed on to the 30ha of rural residential land.
The project managers then considered various options for the balance of the land, but quickly discounted rumours of a golf course. (Mr Darby is also involved in the proposed Parkins Bay golf course on Glendhu Station.)In December last year, the company applied for a separate resource consent for 43 lots on about 138ha of rural residential and rural general land.
That application was amended two weeks ago to increase the lots to 52, keeping all lots within the inner growth boundary identified by the structure plan and providing a large recreational reserve.
The proposal also includes protection of landscape areas along Aubrey Rd and Clutha River corridors, development appropriate to the topography, trails, native tree planting and landscaping.
About 40ha outside the inner growth boundary has not been included in the consent application and would continue to be farmed.
East Wanaka Land Trust Holdings is not a subsidiary of Darby Partners.
Mr Darby is a director of both companies.
Riverhead Park
> Where: Corner Outlet and Aubrey roads
> Area: 178.59ha
> Present land use and zoning: Farmland in rural general zone and rural residential zones (QLDC district plan)
> Proposed future land use: Urban landscape protection zone (Wanaka structure plan)
> Consented status 2006: 64-lot subdivision on 30ha of rural residential land approved in May 2006.
> Proposed development 2009: 52-lot subdivision on 138ha, within the inner growth boundary suggested in the Wanaka structure plan.
