International property valuer Greg Marler has pursued an expensive legal battle since 2003 to build on the scenic Lake Wanaka promontory of Roys Peninsula.
The Auckland businessman is finally free to build his multimillion-dollar house and start a promised extensive native revegetation project of his farmland property on the peninsula.
The Environment Court released a decision last week which dismissed an appeal by the society to try and stop Mr Marler's Matukituki Trust from building at a selected site on the eastern arm of Roys Peninsula.
The court's decision said several witnesses called by the society to present expert evidence "appeared not to understand" their independence and impartial duties to the court.
UCES secretary and immediate past-president Julian Haworth's evidence was influenced by his close associations with the society, and the court was "therefore unable to place much weight on his opinions", Judge Fred McElrea's decision stated.
The court discounted expert evidence from several of the society's witnesses, because the judge and commissioners felt they were "factually inaccurate at times", and in some instances their testimony bordered on advocacy.
Experts called by the Matukituki Trust were more "clinical and objective" and their evidence proved to have a high level of accuracy and reliability, Judge McElrea said.
Mr Haworth said he was surprised and disappointed by the Environment Court's decision.
Some of the court's criticisms were valid, but others "were very unfair", he said.
Mr Marler's legal team included some of New Zealand's foremost planning and resource management lawyers from top Auckland firm Russell McVeagh.
He is understood to have spent more than $1 million on lawyers and independent consultants, such as planners and landscape architects, in his bid to secure a resource consent allowing the construction of a house.
The Society's appeal against the Matukituki Trust's second resource consent application was a last ditch attempt to stop Mr Marler's long-standing efforts to build on land he purchased in 1999.
Mr Marler first applied to build a house on the trust's property in 2003, and resource consent was denied.
He appealed the decision to the Environment Court in January 2006, which upheld the Queenstown Lakes District Council's decision not to grant resource consent.
However, the Environment Court's decision was subsequently found to be at fault and was overturned in December 2006 by the High Court.
Mr Marler's Matukituki Trust reviewed four alternative sites for a dwelling and settled on a location called the "saddle site", between two hills on the eastern arm of the peninsula.
The QLDC granted resource consent for a dwelling at that location, before the Society's unsuccessful appeal.
