Round two of the legal stoush, being fought between the Queenstown Lakes District Council and property developers over plan change 24 - Affordable and Community Housing (PC24) - will resume in the Environment Court later this year.
Judge Gordon Whiting ruled the QLDC's plan change fell within the scope of the Resource Management Act, and, as such, it enables the council to address housing affordability issues.
Queenstown-based developer Remarkables Park Ltd and Wanaka-based Infinity and Willowridge are opposed to the QLDC's affordable housing move, which Infinity general manager Marc Bretherton described as "social engineering".
The developers appealed PC24 to the Environment Court when it was ratified by the QLDC in 2009, after Mayor Clive Geddes used his casting vote to adopt the contentious policy when councillors were split 6-6 at a meeting in December 2008.
QLDC senior policy analyst Scott Figenshow called Judge Whiting's decision "an important community win".
The QLDC has spent about $199,291 since July 2005 in preparing PC24, Mr Figenshow said.
The sum includes costs for the original consultation, working parties, drafting, public notification, council hearing and decision, through to preparing its evidence for the recent Environment Court proceedings, he said.
Mr Bretherton said the QLDC needed to stick to its core business of providing infrastructure and services, such as roading and water, rather than foisting a project of "social engineering" legislation on to ratepayers.
"It [PC24] is completely unnecessary and comes at a phenomenal cost," he said.
Infinity and Willowridge already have "stakeholder agreements" with the QLDC to include affordable housing components at their subdivision developments at Peninsula Bay, Riverside, and Three Parks.
Willowridge has also implemented the Kiwi First scheme - independent of the QLDC and PC24 - at Timsfield, Lake Hawea.
Willowridge director Allan Dippie said Wanaka developers were already leading a market-driven approach to affordable housing in the Queenstown Lakes and PC24 would unfairly penalise them.
"We've done an incredible amount to supply market-driven affordable housing schemes.
The system is already working, so why change it?"He scoffed at Mr Figenshow's claims the Environment Court ruling was "an important community win".
"I suppose it is important to 5% of the community.
What about the 95% of the community who will be penalised and have less affordability [in the property market]?"PC24 imposes a tax on land which developers would be forced to pass on to the majority of purchasers, those who did not qualify for an affordable housing scheme, Mr Dippie said.
"Times have changed since the council first put [PC24] forward. There are better ways to deliver affordable housing to the market," he said.
Remarkables Park director Alastair Porter could not be contacted yesterday.
A second decision being sought by the QLDC in the Environment Court was hoped to address how PC24 would deliver affordable housing, Mr Figenshow said.
