Mr Haworth also claimed, before Queenstown Lakes District Council commissioners Trevor Shiels and Leigh Overton yesterday, that Damper Bay Estates Ltd was also "attempting to trade" permitted farming activities for residential development in a manner not intended by the district plan, he said.
Mr Haworth was presenting evidence for the Upper Clutha Environment Society, one of 114 opposers to a three-lot subdivision and six-house development on 193ha of rural land at Damper Bay.
The resource consent hearing began on Monday and should conclude this evening.
"We heard earlier in this hearing that this realignment has been agreed to by council on the basis that Damper Bay Estates will pay for some or all of the cost of this realignment," Mr Haworth said.
"Details of these negotiations have not been made public and we have an application in to the Ombudsman to get these details. It appears that Damper Bay Estates have effectively bribed council to move the track in order to facilitate their development. To say the least, this raises issues about how council is administering its district plan," he said.
There would only be marginal differences in the visibility of the houses from the realignment.
The council would have to blast a cliff face and rocks, exacerbating the adverse and cumulative effects of development, he said.
A lot of emphasis was being put on the realignment when visibility from the lake was just as important a consideration and that perspective had not changed, he said.
While viewpoints of the development were limited from Mt Aspiring Rd, screening developments from public roads did not satisfy the district plan, which weighted views from all public places equally, Mr Haworth said.
The developer's intention to retire 163ha of the 193ha site from grazing was a "trade" in permitted activities that the commissioners should ignore, he said.
"There is a trend I have observed in resource consent applications in this district where applicants offer to covenant against or forgo farming activities as a positive effect/environmental compensation to justify residential development.
The district plan never intended that such farming activities should be traded for residential development," Mr Haworth said.
The society's consultant landscape architect Anne Steven gave evidence six large houses would appear as a "resort or lifestyle enclave".
The development would not preserve the openness and naturalness of the site and the area had already reached the threshold for appropriate development.
"The cumulative effect of residential development between Waterfall Creek and Glendhu Bay if this proposal was granted consent would, in my view, seriously challenge the ongoing classification of the landscape [as outstanding natural landscape]. The only aspect of the proposal that would contribute positively is the ecological and planting proposals."
Submissions were also presented yesterday by farmer Don McRae and Wanaka Residents' Association president Graham Dickson.
