A council planner's view on a proposed gravel quarry near Luggate has changed, after the developer amended the plans to reduce the impact on the landscape.
Wanaka contracting firm Central Machine Hire, which is part of Allan Dippie's company, Willowridge Developments, is seeking Queenstown Lakes District Council consent for an 11ha, 10m-deep quarry on a 119ha site bounded by Kane and McKay Rds and State Highway 8A, the Luggate-Tarras Rd.
Evidence for and against the quarry was presented at a hearing before independent commissioners Denis Nugent and Jane Taylor in Wanaka yesterday.
In the original plan, Central Machine Hire proposed removing the eastern terrace face during the third and final stage of excavation.
But the council's landscape architect consultant, Richard Denney, said ''the adverse effects created by the proposed extent of modification to the natural form of the eastern terrace face could be reduced by retaining the bulk of terrace face ...''.
Mr Dippie said the proposal had been changed to leave the outer terrace intact, meaning the quarry operations would be ''largely invisible'' behind it.
The quarry entrance would still be cut through the terrace, but this would be a ''relatively smaller modification to the broader landform'', Mr Denney said.
After the change, council planner Sarah Picard changed her recommendation from declining consent to granting it.
Middle ground was also found when Central Machine Hire offered to maintain the unsealed McKay Rd and suppress the dust for the 20-year life of the quarry, if a proposed council condition of consent that the company pay for the road to be sealed - which the applicant's lawyer, Graeme Todd, said would cost $500,000 - was dropped.
''I believe what we're offering up here would mean council's input [into road maintenance] would not need to change'', Central Machine Hire's transport planning consultant, Jason Bartlett, said.
The application attracted 33 public submissions - 25 opposing it, five in support and three neutral.
Many of the opposing submitters were concerned about speculation Ballantyne Rd would be used by trucks using the quarry.
Their concern was allayed when Central Machine Hire said roads throughout the Upper Clutha area would be used, as gravel was needed in Wanaka, Hawea and Luggate.
Christine Thomson, secretary of the Mt Barker Residents Association, which includes Ballantyne Rd residents, was the only submitter to speak at the hearing. She asked whether the use of Ballantyne Rd for quarry operations could be prohibited as a condition of consent.
Mr Todd said it was ''impossible to give [such an] undertaking'', but Mr Bartlett said trucks travelling between the quarry and Willowridge Development's large Three Parks subdivision in Wanaka would use State Highway 6.
The application for consent states noise from the quarry would not breach the district plan rules for the rural general zone, but Mr Nugent suggested this be made a condition of consent, along with other conditions pertaining to the colour and location of buildings on the site, the height and location of gravel stockpiles and rehabilitation of the site.
Mr Bartlett said ''typically'' the average number of vehicle movements to and from the quarry would be 40 to 80 a day.
It was anticipated 953,000cu m of gravel would be taken during the 20-year consent.
Mr Nugent adjourned the hearing until the proposed conditions of consent had been revised.
