A plan to reopen a disused quarry below the Remarkables to extract 760,000cu m of aggregate for Wakatipu roading projects has been publicly notified.
The 3.16ha site, formerly known as Lumberbox Quarry, is one of the few sites in the Wakatipu basin where rock suitable for use in roading projects is found.A previous site at 12 Mile Creek has closed.
Downer EDI Works Ltd has applied to extract 760,000cu m of rock over 15 years in six stages. The quarry would then be progressively backfilled and landscaped, using local native plants.
Downer wants to "recommission" the quarry, which it says would make local roading projects more efficient and sustainable than hauling aggregate from Parkburn, north of Cromwell.
"The provision of locally sourced aggregate is of economic advantage to the district," planning manager Andrew Henderson, of Boulder Planning, said in his report.
The application covers the extraction of the aggregate, use of the necessary equipment on site and the installation of two portable buildings for use as a site office, smoko room and toilet facilities.
A mobile crusher would visit the site about four times a year to crush stone and there would be stockpiles of up to 12,500cu m of material at the site.
The quarry is about 6km from Frankton on the Kingston road, near both Jacks Point and the Lakeside Estates residential areas.
It is visible from four of the houses in Lakeside Estates but would be mostly hidden by a bund.
A Morgan and Pollard landscape assessment states the site is at "the interface" of the Wakatipu basin outstanding natural landscape and an "evolving rural landscape" south of Jacks Point.
The elevation of the site means it is visible from few points along the road but is more visible from further out on the lake, the report says.
Lumberbox Quarry was first opened in the 1970s to provide road-grade gravel for the National Roads Board and was used intermittently through to the 1990s when Transit New Zealand - now the New Zealand Transport Agency - tried to restore the area.
The report said this was only "partly effective in healing the scars" and the area has since been invaded by briar rose, broom and lupin.
It concludes that while quarry operations are often presumed to be "inherently incompatible" with outstanding natural landscapes, the long-term effects would make recommissioning Lumberbox Quarry "not inappropriate" with staged cut-and-fill operations, and revegetation would reduce the visual impact while work was under way.
• Submissions on the proposal will be accepted at Lakes Environmental until October 14.
