Covenants signed by Lake Hayes Estate property owners are not enough for the proposed 15-lot subdivision at Lake Hayes Estate to go ahead without affected party approval, solicitors for the Queenstown Lakes District Council report.
This was the legal advice from law firm Macalister Todd Phillips in a memorandum to Lake Hayes Estate Ltd (LHE) from commissioners Jane Taylor and Christine Kelly last week.
The commissioners requested a legal opinion to support their decision on whether or not to publicly notify LHE's proposed subdivision and land use consent application, following the one-day determination hearing last month.
If the application was publicly notified, the council would be an affected party, because it owns a reserve opposite the proposed development on Rere Rd.
The commissioners heard from LHE counsel Jim Castiglione that covenants signed by residents prohibited them from objecting, during the hearing.
The covenant was put in place specifically to give owners or occupiers advance notice that the property would be further subdivided and developed in the future, he said in the hearing.
Mactodd associate Tony Ray wrote in the memorandum that while the covenant was a form of contract between the original landowners and subsequent owners, it did not bind the council in its role as the consent authority.
"The Resource Management Act leans towards public participation where there is doubt. We are inclined to the view that the covenant is not sufficient approval for the purposes of section 94(2) in respect of both the reserve and the privately owned properties which are subject to the covenant."
The commissioners' decision whether or not to publicly notify was still reserved last week and no date had been set for an announcement.
