The Upper Clutha Environment Society has given tacit approval to a planned secondary town centre on the outskirts of Wanaka.
Property developer Allan Dippie's company Willowridge Ltd is in the middle of an adjourned council plan change hearing, which will determine whether the expansive Three Parks development will proceed.
The project includes a secondary retail centre catering for "big box" retailers and all-purpose department stores, commercial zones, and a residential component of about 750 housing units.
The project's proposed location is on a 100ha site near Mt Iron, bounded by State Highway 84 - Wanaka's main town entranceway - and Ballantyne Rd.
The society has not lodged a submission against the council plan change, despite the environmental lobby group's stance of routinely opposing "inappropriate" developments.
UCES secretary and spokesman Julian Haworth said the society saw the Three Parks location as a natural area for Wanaka's expansion.
"[Three Parks] does have some landscape effects. But, they are not significant, so we have left it up to the council to handle," he said.
A Queenstown Lakes District Council plan change was a more appropriate way for "a massive development, such as this" to proceed, rather than through the resource consent process.
A council plan change provided better outcomes and the public was more involved in the consultation process.
"In my opinion, you could actually get more houses built in that location," Mr Haworth said.
The UCES had not opposed residential developments when they were close to "main" township centres and catered for growth, such as Wanaka's Peninsula Bay, Timsfield, at Lake Hawea, or subdivisions at Luggate.
"Wanaka has to expand somewhere. The society sees Three Parks as the right place for that to happen," Mr Haworth said.
