A "staggering" invoice for almost $20,000 for a Queenstown Lakes District Council commissioner's fee has been labelled unfair and unreasonable by a surveyor seeking a costs review for clients.
Bill and Raylene Jelley received a bill for $33,314 from QLDC regulatory and planning authority Lakes Environmental in October for costs associated with processing a resource consent application for a two-section subdivision at their Mt Barker property.
The couple's Wanaka surveyor, Matthew Suddaby, said the bill was "extraordinary" for a simple, "small-scale" case.
The Jelleys and Mr Suddaby have objected to paying $19,462 (or $325 an hour) for one of the council's most senior resource consent commissioners, Queenstown barrister John Matthews.
At a review hearing in Wanaka on Monday, Mr Suddaby questioned the "sheer amount of time" spent by Mr Matthews making a decision for the Jelleys' application to subdivide their property into two lots.
Lakes Environmental records show Mr Matthews spent about 52 hours preparing and deliberating his resource consent decision - a 42 page document granting consent.
"It is certainly, by far, the most in-depth decision of this kind that I've ever seen," Mr Suddaby said.
An "overabundance of caution" had influenced Mr Matthew's decision, "not because of the complexity of this case, but because of its history," Mr Suddaby said.
The bill is another expense in the Jelleys' bid to subdivide a 11ha block of their land at Mt Barker and build.
An original application for three sections on the rural-lifestyle zoned land was subjected to a judicial review when their Mt Barker neighbours the Miro Trust - owners of the former Wallis family home - objected to the proposal.
The Miro Trust's Michael Spackman and Wellington lawyer Mike Garnham appealed the matter through to the New Zealand Court of Appeal.
The QLDC has been involved alongside the Jelleys in all the legal appeals, as the consenting local authority responsible for the planning decision.
Mr Suddaby acknowledged the QLDC had borne some "huge" costs.
The Miro Trust originally appealed Mr Matthews' decision, which granted the Jelleys consent to subdivide into two lots, to the Environment Court.
The Jelleys and Miro have since been through mediation and settled.
QLDC lawyer Tony Rae said it was misleading to call the Jelleys' application a "simple" two-section subdivision.
There were some "tricky legal issues" as evidenced by its history and the council needed to have a legally qualified practitioner of Mr Matthews' experience and standing as a commissioner, he said.
Review commissioner Denis Nugent, an independent Wanaka-based planner, reserved his decision on the costs objection.
