Stringent planning rules for building in the Cardrona Valley could derail two projects proposed by a Wanaka developer.
Separate proposals from Dunedin company director Lane Hocking and his company LAC Properties Trust Ltd want to establish a building platform and a residential dwelling at two locations in the Cardrona Valley.
Planners from Queenstown Lakes District Council planning and regulatory authority Lakes Environmental (LE) have recommended the separate consent applications be declined because they do not meet strict planning requirements for the Cardrona Valley's Outstanding Natural Landscape zone designation.
The Cardrona Valley has a history of costly legal battles for farmers and landowners wanting to develop their properties and build dwellings in light of strict building and planning regulations.
Mr Hocking wants to establish an 813sq m building platform and associated earthworks at a 83.79ha site about 7km north of Cardrona township.
In a separate application, LAC Properties applied to remove a cottage and build a 317sq m dwelling on a 379.3ha farm.
LAC also wants to establish a second 252sq m building platform close by, to build a farm worker's dwelling, as part of a staged development of the farm property.
LE planner Ian Greaves has recommended to commissioners David Collins and Lou Alfeld consent for the 813sq m building platform be refused because the landscape effects of the proposed development would represent an "over-domestication" of an Outstanding Natural Landscape and affect the "naturalness of the site".
LE planner Kristy Jennings has recommended the dwelling proposal and farm worker's building platform development be refused consent because of the potential damage from, and exacerbation to, flooding hazards in the area.
Commissioners Collins and Alfeld are scheduled to hear the separate matters next week.
