An extraordinary meeting will be held in the resort tomorrow to discuss, in part, four expressions of interest for SHAs.
While the council will be asked to recommend the Arrowtown Retirement Village, which proposes to establish up to 120 villa units, up to 55 apartment units and a 100-bed aged care facility, along with community facilities, on about 20ha of land on McDonnell Rd, it is being asked to refuse a similar application, mooted for a site near Millbrook Resort.
The Ayrburn application was for up to 201 new dwellings, along with associated care facilities and community amenities.
Ten two-bedroom houses were planned for the site, to be provided rent-free to retirement village employees, and any houses surplus to the needs of employees were to be made available for the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust.
However senior planner Anita Vanstone said while the proposal would help achieve the purpose of the relevant legislation, other relevant factors were ‘‘significant'' and, on balance, she recommended the council did not support the establishment of the Ayrburn SHA.
Ms Vanstone's report said Ayrburn had put forward an expression of interest for the same site, considered in June last year. That was for a predominantly residential 150-lot subdivision, including house and land packages for about $450,000.
While the retirement village proposal increased the proposed density by about a third, in general, it remained similar to its previous application.
Recommending the proposal would help to achieve the purpose of the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Act in particular helping the council achieve the housing targets by enabling new housing for the elderly, which may also free up some of the housing supply in Queenstown and Arrowtown.
It would also generate social and economic benefits, including the creation of jobs and provide a different housing option in the Wakatipu basin.
But it was considered inconsistent with both the operative and proposed district plans because it was on land zoned rural general and rural, where the scale and density of the development was ‘‘not anticipated''.
‘‘The proposal would set a precedent for isolated urban development on a site that is not unique or distinguishable from many other sites in the Wakatipu Basin.''
While the developer was committed to a sensitive design, capping development at one storey and using existing and proposed topography to reduce the visibility of the development, there ‘‘may be some adverse impact on rural landscape values''.
‘‘Extension of urban infrastructure into the rural zone ... is inefficient and expensive in terms of the overall network.
‘‘It will also create a precedent, which would tend to lead to more demand for urban services in rural zones, to the cost of ratepayers and develop inefficiencies in the network.''
Ms Vanstone said the ‘‘key risk'' was proceeding with a development that was not beside or near an existing urban development.
‘‘It is considered that the adverse effects of allowing an isolated urban development does not outweigh the social and economic benefits towards the provision of house and land packages.''
The council will be asked to recommend to the Minister of Building and Housing the Arrowtown Retirement Village, Shotover Country (95 residential units) and Gorge Road Business Mixed Use Zone, for an apartment development of up to six storeys, at least 30% of which would comprise studio, one or two-bedroom units, all be established as SHAs.
