Three siblings spoke yesterday of their frustration over an almost 20-year battle for a ''small fry'' family subdivision on the western shoreline of Lake Wanaka.
Struan Minty, of Beaumont Station, Gill Lucas, of Wanaka, and Elizabeth Solakof, of Wellington, were speaking at a Queenstown Lakes District Council resource consent hearing in Wanaka.
They are three of six beneficiaries of the Sharpridge Trust, which has applied to the council to subdivide the family's 137ha property in an outstanding natural landscape at West Wanaka.
The council previously granted consent to Sharpridge in 2001 for a 120ha six-lot subdivision with approved residential building platforms.
However, the Upper Clutha Environmental Society (Uces) appealed the decision, the Environment Court found the proposal was ''clearly excessive'' and the application was declined.
In 2010, Sharpridge applied for a four-lot subdivision with three building platforms, but gained approval for only two.
After appealing the decision, the trust settled for a third lot with no building platform.
The latest application - to delete the third lot and create a new lot with its own building platform - has again been opposed by Uces.
Sharpridge trustee Mrs Lucas said the family had ''bent over backwards'' to accommodate others in their development plans.
''My family never imagined 20 years ago that we would be still standing here still defending what was meant to be a simple subdivision ... split evenly between our family members so we could each enjoy our own piece of paradise.
''That dream has turned into a nightmare ... what we are asking for is small fry on a large property that we have owned for 35 years.''
Her brother and fellow trustee Mr Minty said the development of the Millennium Track across reserve land leased by the family - adjoining their freehold farmland - had affected farming operations.
His late father, Jack, had been ''fully supportive'' of the track project before he died in 2000, and no-one in the family had envisaged the problems it would create.
Dogs off leads had stressed stock, gates were left open, freedom camping occurred and the rabbit population thrived because shooting, trapping and poisoning were unsuitable near the track.
''As a family with a freehold title we have made concessions for the public good. The proposed subdivision is modest in relation to the size of the property and its continued farming programme on the balance of the land provides a sustainable rural presence.''
Discussion around the visibility of the newly proposed building platform focused on lake users.
Landscape architect Ben Espie, appearing for Sharpridge, said the platform was in an enclosed gully and was only a ''minor interruption'' to the openness of the landscape.
Lake users viewing the new building platform would also be able to see Wanaka suburbs and other lakeside dwellings.
Supporting submitter Steve Norman said Millennium Track users were more visible from the lake than the farmland beyond.
Sharpridge solicitor Rex Chapman said the application's 77 supporting submissions - compared with five opposing - were a ''gauge'' of what the public regarded as acceptable.
After hearing the applicant's evidence, council planner Hanna Afifi made some concessions in her reasons for recommending the application be declined, but stood by her recommendation.
But Mr Chapman said if the new building platform's visibility from the lake was the only remaining significant adverse effect of the proposal, it would be ''wrong in principle'' to rely on that as a reason to decline consent.
