Accommdation providers in Wanaka could soon face added competition if approval is given for a proposed "Wanaka Lodge" in Mount Aspiring Rd, a scaled-down version of an already consented project.
Wanaka Projects Ltd has applied for resource consent to build a 19-unit visitor accommodation complex on a 5266sq m vacant site at 122-129 Mount Aspiring Rd.
The site is zoned low density residential and visitor accommodation sub-zone and has residential properties to the north and west and Altamont Lodge and Mount Aspiring Lodge to the east.
Resource consent was already granted for a 40-unit accommodation complex at the site in December 2006, then a new consent was given in July 2009 to vary some of the conditions.
Those consents provided for more than double the intensity of use in the present application, which proposes three blocks containing 19 guest rooms, with a reception, communal kitchen, dining and lounge area in one of those blocks.
A fourth block would contain communal amenities including a sauna/spa and change facility, and an implement room. The buildings would all be single-storey except for one, which would have a mezzanine level, and would be set back 30m from the road boundary on a rear site, meaning only a "small portion" of them would be evident from the road, the application stated.
Private courtyards would be oriented internally so they were physically separated from adjoining residential land uses and a 2m stone wall at the rear boundary would screen the communal courtyard area.
The buildings would be made from recycled materials to create a "rustic farm cottage/woolshed experience".
The property's southern boundary, next to Mount Aspiring Rd, has a row of London plane trees which are protected under the district plan. Servicing of the site and underground reticulation of utilities would occur within 5m of the base and within the dripline of those trees.
However, an arborist's report prepared for the original consent application detailed appropriate measures that were to be employed to protect the trees and their root systems which also applied to the present application.
Those recommendations previously resulted in the effects of the proposal on the trees being assessed as no more than minor.
