The company behind the proposed Mitre 10 Mega store in Frankton, which was granted consent by the Environment Court, is "surprised and deeply saddened" the Queenstown Lakes District Council has decided to appeal the decision.
After a public-excluded discussion at an extraordinary council meeting on Friday, Mayor Vanessa van Uden issued a statement announcing the council would appeal the decision to grant consent to the store.
The appeal was "an attempt to preserve the integrity of Frankton planning and land set aside for industrial use".
Building the store at Shotover Park would "eat into land set aside to meet the future needs of our business community".
She contended the Mitre 10 Mega store could be built with a non-notified consent within Remarkables Park.
A spokesman for the developer, H&J Smith director Jason Smith, said the company would have to review the matter carefully, but felt the council's decision did not appear "logical or consistent".
"The Mitre 10 Mega store is a discretionary activity in the proposed plan change 19 zoning and the council has decided to challenge this decision.
"As part of the [Environment Court] hearing, the options to go to other locations in Frankton were reviewed and neither Pak'n Save [also granted consent in July] or Mitre 10 Mega could easily or appropriately fit into the Remarkables Park Town Centre as [Ms] van Uden believes."
Mr Smith said the court heard the company's evidence and recognised "the owner of the business has a right to choose where to develop their business".
"Our choice is to develop in Shotover Park.
"Council simply cannot direct where businesses develop; that has been reinforced by the judge's decision in our cases."
He said Ms van Uden and the council had "bought into the foray of appeals" and would add to the significant delays the council had previously said it was trying to avoid.
"Again, this appears to be clearly contradictory on the part of the council."
Mr Smith said there were no public submissions during the notification period for the Mitre 10 Mega store, which "reflects the desire for the business in the community".
The council had approved the "fast tracking" of the consent via a direct referral to the Environment Court, but now "want to delay this process again, simply because it does not match their needs".
"We have had a full court hearing on the issues on this matter, with an experienced judge working through all the issues and resolving that this use of land is appropriate.
"Now the council wants to further delay and frustrate this process to begin the review of industrial land in Queenstown all over again.
"Someone is going to pay for this, and it will be the Queenstown ratepayers, who do not appear to either have a say in the matter or are being ignored in the process by planners who don't want any changes that are not of their creation.
"Why would anyone want to develop in Queenstown when this level of frustration, costs and constantly changing rules and regulations exists?"
