A resource consent application for a controversial proposed retirement village for Wanaka remains unchanged, despite a restrictive covenant which expressly prohibits the developers from exceeding building height restrictions.
Stoney Creek Village Ltd (SCVL) director Tony Hannon said the resource consent application was being processed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council's planning and regulatory authority Lakes Environmental.
The developers had not amended their original proposal for a 97-unit apartment complex on a 1.83ha site off Mt Aspiring Rd in the Meadowstone subdivision, he said.
The 10-building apartment complex and ancillary buildings range in height from 7.4m to 12.2m above existing ground level.
Council building height restrictions are 8m high, but the site also has a legal covenant over the 1.83ha block, which prohibits buildings on the site from exceeding 7m above ground level.
Meadowstone developer Willowridge Ltd owns the property directly behind the proposed retirement village and retains the covenant on the site from when it sold the land to Wanaka property development company Infinity Ltd, which on-sold to SCVL.
The SCVL site is situated next to Stoney Creek - a waterway about which there are unresolved issues regarding the potential for flooding and which is at the centre of a continuing legal wrangle between the Otago Regional Council and Wanaka farmers Eric and Owen Hopgood regarding much-needed floodworks.
Lakes Environmental Wanaka planning team leader Christian Martin said a future date was still to be set for for a resource consent hearing.
