"Clip these panels’ wings, remove their quasi-judicial protection, make them liable and accountable for their decision-making, just like any other profession or trade," he said.
Mr Tylden, of Glenpanel Development Ltd, last Friday received subdivision approval from the Environmental Protection Authority for his Flint’s Park housing development, on a 15.6ha site at Ladies Mile, opposite the Queenstown Country Club retirement village.
Of that land, about 9.45ha will be developed to accommodate 370 residential units housing, roughly 1000 people, as affordably as possible.
It has taken eight years and four attempts to get the development across the line.
While Mr Tylden said while he was "very pleased" to have subdivision consent, he was investigating legal action to overturn those parts of the panel’s decision "that we believe are not based on law".
Glenpanel also applied for land use for residential buildings.
The absence of that consent, in particular, was an "inconvenience" for Glenpanel working with partners , "to rapidly deliver the housing that Queenstown so desperately needs", Mr Tylden said.
"This is the second panel which has failed to uphold the minister’s referral order for this project," Mr Tylden said.
"If these panels are exemplars of [Resource Management Act] decision-making, then it is no wonder there is a housing crisis and our infrastructure is crumbling."
Of the Flint’s Park development, Mr Tylden said much of the residential component would be turnkey duplex and terraced living.
There would also be a mixed-use homestead precinct, Glenpanel Homestead, in which ground-level commercial spaces were envisaged for retail, health and wellbeing facilities.
At least 70 apartments were also planned within that precinct, which he expected would become an "attractive boutique destination".
As to when the first residents could be living at Flint’s Park — which will be accessed by its own T-intersection off State Highway 6 — Mr Tylden pointed to a recent housing development he completed in Invercargill.
"From when we turned dirt to when we had the first houses occupied was 12 months."
There was no time to waste, he said.
In 2016 the median house price was about $750,000 — according to realestate.co.nz, it is now $1.7 million.
There was also more financial pressure on developers, which ultimately affected section sizes, Mr Tylden said.
The focus at Flint’s Park was to create a wide range of housing types, he said.
While he was happy to work with the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust, "we can’t afford to give land away".
"The harsh reality is, when we were doing the SHAs [special housing areas], we were agreeing to provide 10% of the developed lots to the housing trust.
"Six years have gone past since then — we’ve had all the holding cost and all the additional cost ... There’s got to be a way to do community housing which doesn’t transfer the cost of that land on to other purchasers."
He was also looking at other options for long-term, affordable housing, such as build-to-rent.
Flint’s Park is the first significant housing development on the northern side of State Highway 6 — something the community has largely rallied against for years.
But Mr Tylden, who has lived in the resort on and off since 1992, said the only constant in the Wakatipu was change, and pointed to the significant development across the road.
He suggested, in time, Queenstown itself would likely start at Arrow Junction and the first thing people would see on Ladies Mile would be playing fields on their left, and — hopefully — a high school on their right.
