The controversial Wanaka watersports facility proposal has been granted $40,000 by the Central Lakes Trust for "project planning''.
The grant was one of 18, worth $649,074, announced by the trust yesterday.
The application to build the watersports facility on the edge of Lake Wanaka is due to be considered at a Queenstown Lakes District Council resource consent hearing next week.
Two-thirds of the 1042 public submissions lodged with the council were against the facility, mainly citing its location.
Explaining the grant yesterday, Central Lakes Trust chief executive Paul Allison told the Otago Daily Times it was provided to help get the project to a point where it could be considered by the public.
"It allows [the project] to sort of take shape to a stage where it can be adequately considered.''
Mr Allison said the grant was not an indication the trust was backing the watersports facility.
"We don't have a formal opinion on the merits of the project as such.
"We're not necessarily saying we are pro it, or anti it; it just allows the project to get to a stage where it can be considered on its merits.''
Mr Allison said providing the funding was "not completely foreign'' to what the trust had done in the past.
The Wanaka Community House proposal received a grant for a similar purpose.
Mr Allison said no further grants for the watersports facility would be made before it was "fully approved''.
Secretary of the Wanaka-Hawea Reserves Trust set up to fight the facility John Coe, said last night the trust preferred not to comment until it had a clearer understanding of reasons for the grant.
The Central Lakes Trust was created in 2000 from the sale of $155 million of publicly-owned electricity assets.
