The three-day resource consent hearing of contentious plans to build a 420sq m watersports facility in the Roys Bay Recreation Reserve on Lake Wanaka will begin this morning.
The application by the Wanaka Watersports Facility Trust will be heard by independent commissioners Robert Nixon and David Clarke at the Lake Wanaka Centre.
The hearing was originally scheduled to begin on February 29, but it was postponed because of a bereavement.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council received more than 1000 submissions on the proposal, two-thirds of which opposed the building.
Many of the opposed submitters said the building would have a detrimental impact on the reserve.
Wanaka Watersports Facility Trust chairman Michael Sidey told the Otago Daily Times the trust had done ‘‘all it could'' to inform the public of the need for the facility.
‘‘We [the trust] couldn't have done a better job, so from that point of view we are feeling confident.''
The Wanaka-Hawea Reserves Trust was established in opposition to the facility, and trust secretary John Coe said the future of Wanaka did not feature the building.
‘‘It is about looking at what is best for Wanaka in the long term rather than in the piecemeal way we go about things.
‘‘I hope that the commissioners look at it from a long-term point of view.''
In February, opponents of the facility criticised the Central Lakes Trust for making a $40,000 grant towards the proposal for ‘‘project planning'' before the facility received consent.
