A million-dollar proposal to turn the Tap Tavern in Arrowtown into the "front door" of the historic Buckingham St miners' cottages is in Environment Court mediation, following an appeal after the resource consent was declined in November.
Tap owner and Mertha Investments co-director Alan Hamilton lodged the appeal in December after telling the Otago Daily Times he had sunk $100,000 into the project, which would see the old Colonial Bank stone cottage, built in 1874, become the "front door" to the Buckingham St cottages.
In November, Mr Hamilton said he thought Queenstown Lakes District Council independent commissioner David Collins, of Christchurch, rejected the bid because he was not familiar with the nature of the 10 cottages in the Buckingham St restoration project, run by the QLDC-appointed Arrowtown Trust.
Mr Hamilton wanted to build a 100sq m weatherboard building with a corrugated iron roof behind the old stone building and move his nearby Ramshaw Lane wine shop there.
The back section of the the Tap would be lifted, and a new kitchen and bathroom facilities added on the same level as the historic building.
Lakes Environmental planner Wendy Baker said it was hoped the confidential mediation would find some "middle ground" to settle the appeal with objectors, Arrowtown Musuem archivist-researcher Karen Swaine and Berkshire St resident Mark Kramer.
Mr Kramer was concerned at the proposal to narrow the street and questioned the safety of angle parking, requiring vehicles to back out into the traffic.
His primary concern was with retail activity spreading into the residential zone and he also questioned the legality of the present commercial activities on the application site, noting that to his knowledge, the only authorisation was a 1970 consent for tearooms.
Ms Swaine said the bid represented "zone change by stealth" and said the intentions of the District Plan for the area were clear and that any deviation should only be considered only as part of a wider district plan change.
She said there was a need to maintain a clear zone boundary, adding that a liquor outlet was "not appropriate" on the site.
The Tap building is residentially zoned but has been a commercial site for most of its life, although it has never formally designated as such.
The matter remains before the Environment Court, pending an outcome from mediation.
