Four years ago, a temporary moratorium was imposed on construction in the Stoney Creek suburb while the Wanaka community designed a 50-year flood protection scheme.
The good news is the ban has long been lifted, most of the protection scheme is in place and dozens of brand new, $500,000-plus homes are protected.
The bad news is that older Rippon Lea houses - the houses badly damaged by floods of 1999 and 2004; the damage that prompted the scheme in the first place - remain unprotected, and the budget is now $400,000.
Ratepayers face paying a special rate to cover the $150,000 blowout.
Why? Because the Otago Regional Council and landowners the Hopgood family remain at loggerheads over the dimensions of a culvert and a debris trap; because the Hopgoods want the council to indemnify them should the scheme fail; and because they want compensation if their land is to be dug up.
Hawthenden Farm owner Eric Hopgood says he and his brother Owen are just a "couple of old codgers, minding our own business, wanting to get on with our lives".
They feel their family trust is being hounded to provide land for the scheme.
The Hopgoods doubt the scheme will work. They say a proposed replacement culvert at their crossing will be too small, while a proposed debris trap - essentially a large hole in the ground - in the upper reaches of the creek is ridiculously large.
"We think it is a sad day when you need a full-time lawyer to protect your rights to run a farm, just because of the wants and needs of the community and different authorities trying to fulfil those wishes with little or no recompense," Eric said in an interview.
Usually the brothers prefer their Dunedin lawyer Michael Nidd to speak for them.
But Eric agreed to talk because he wants people to know he does not want to be liable if the scheme fails.
Mr Nidd has told the brothers if they allowed the works to be done, they would be strictly liable for anything that escaped their land.
The problem started with floods in 1999 and 2004, causing hundreds of thousands worth of damage to several Rippon Lea properties.
Both times, Stoney Creek deviated from its course at the Hopgood's culvert crossing and flowed down Studholme and Mt Aspiring Rds, dumping tonnes of debris into Rippon Lea.
Once it came up with the flood protection plan, the council spent $260,000 completing new culverts under public roads and digging a debris trap in the lower creek.
To finish the scheme, all that is needed is to replace the offending culvert with a bigger one and build the upper debris trap, which should reduce the amount of material that might come down in another flood and block the culvert again.
But access has not been granted.
Mr Nidd said, when contacted, if the council would do work that met the Hopgoods' approval, everything could have been resolved years ago.
The Hopgoods do not like the council's proposed culvert because it would cause a dip in the road, preventing stock truck access. They want a large box culvert, Mr Nidd said.
Eric also said a bridge would work at the crossing.
ORC director of engineering and environmental hazards, Dr Gavin Palmer, says the council will not build a large culvert or bridge that exceeds the crossing function.
If the Hopgoods wanted something more than what was required, they could pay the extra, he said.
Further, a large structure in the creek would interfere with hydraulics and could cause even more problems during a flood, Dr Palmer said.
Eric thinks the council's upper debris trap will be the size of two football fields but Dr Palmer says the dimensions have not been finalised.
Eric also says the council could dig to China for all he cared, as long as they paid compensation.
But compensation was not as important as indemnity against scheme failure, he said.
Indemnity was the "starting point". Then the lawyers could start talking about what would be reasonable to build, Eric said.
Dr Palmer says the impasse should not be resolved by doing a deal using ratepayers' money.
It was important to do what was proper and right for the community, he said.
Further, there was no need to give the Hopgoods an express indemnity or insurance, he said.
The actual hazard was the debris high up in Stoney Creek. The scheme would mitigate, not create, the hazard. All that had been explained to the Hopgoods' lawyer, Dr Palmer said.
Using the Public Works Act to get access and complete the work was a possibility but the council had not taken those steps because it would use more ratepayers' money to go through the process when it already had a community-approved scheme, Dr Palmer said.
In the meantime, the council had adjusted its proposed culvert design to take into account some of the issues raised, Dr Palmer said.
Both sides say nothing has happened to progress the scheme since the proposed special rate was announced in May and neither has changed its position.
The council would apply for resource consent soon, but that does not grant access.
Dr Palmer said council staff were also keen to meet the Hopgoods.
Eric continues to argue the Hopgoods should have the final say on the scheme signed off after community consultation in 2005.
He will fight to protect that right, he said.
"The community doesn't live where we are... As long as they get what they want, they are OK. You must stick up for your own rights. Who wouldn't? I would consider the community. I often do. I let horses, walkers, cyclists go there. But when it comes to the whole farm being wrecked, you have to stand up for yourself," Eric said.
• WATCH THIS SPACE
The Queenstown Lakes District Council recently identified Hawthenden Farm as a potential site for a new town water reservoir, but farm owner Eric Hopgood says the council has yet to enter formal negotiations.
Wanaka Community Board chairman Lyal Cocks told the Otago Daily Times that without more water storage capacity it was likely no further development would take place in west Wanaka.
Predicted population growth means region-wide demand is likely to increase from 8.7cumecs this year to 13.6cumecs in 2019. Wanaka has three reservoirs and the council is exploring sites for a fourth.
Hill End Station, owned by Trade Me founder Sam Morgan, is another possible site. If a reservoir on the west side could not be found, no water would be available for Willowridge Development Ltd's long-term Three Parks proposal or Ballantyne Rd, or for Peter and Dee Gordon's rest-home proposal on Cardrona Valley Rd, Mr Cocks said.
Provision for a fourth reservoir has been made in the QLDC draft 10-year plan.
