Would-be Queenstown developer Guy Hingston should be grateful the Fernhill community he is a part-time member of has no formal say on his fast-track application.
A cancer surgeon who practises in Australia, his company Bowen Peak Ltd is behind "multi-headed" plans that may reshape one of Queenstown’s most established suburbs.
He is planning three aerial rope ways, including two gondolas, between One Mile and Bowen Peak, chalets with 1333 residential units above Fernhill, predator-free sanctuaries, native planting that would replace wilding pines, and tourism activities on Bowen Peak, including a skifield.
Hingston’s first two ‘referral’ applications were unsuccessful, but his third was accepted by Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop in April, giving him until the end of August to prepare his substantive application.
After the Fernhill & Sunshine Bay Community Association expressed frustration they had not met up with him, he fronted up to its meeting last Tuesday, with 100-plus residents also attending.
He started by saying he welcomed feedback as he’d only received seven on-the-topic emails — though a petition opposing his plans, which has received almost 3500 signatures, is ongoing.
"This project comes primarily out of our family’s decision to try and help the community," he said.
His biggest priority is removing wilding pines "to build a predator-free sanctuary of potentially more than 300ha," to bring back native birds.
His other priority is providing worker housing, with 5% of Fernhill Heights going to the local housing trust and 50% to those earning below-average household income.
"My son tells me 10% of residents in Queenstown this year will sleep in a car at least one night of the year.
"Our family would like to do something to try and help that."
Several residents congratulated Hingston for fronting up and some saw merit in some of his plans.
That aside, everyone given the mic expressed concerns.
A major concern was the effects housing would create on a steep, possibly landslip-prone site outside the town limits for development, including a very lengthy construction period.
Especially since even now residents face infrastructure problems.
One said "by rule of thumb, 1333 residences will generate between 8000 and 10,000 vehicle movements per day, which is going to feed on to Wynyard and Greenstone".
"I would go as far as to say it would be impossible for those streets to cope with that volume of traffic unless you persuade the council to remove all parking on both sides of those streets."
The One Mile roundabout and even downtown Shotover St "will just be completely overwhelmed".
On concerns over landslips and rockfalls, which the council has already raised, Hingston pointed to a geotech report in one of his application’s appendices.
"A much more detailed report is currently being prepared for the substantive application."
On fire risk, he said that would be dealt with by removing wilding pines.
An emergency management officer asked how he would cope with evacuating all those extra people if disaster struck.
"Like people have said, the roading network wouldn’t take it, there’s no other way to evacuate people."
Hingston did assure his audience he had taken onboard lessons from the problems Skyline Queenstown had with slash rolling down Bob’s Peak during a record 24-hour rainfall in 2023.
Resident Peter Smith raised the experience locals had had with the uncompleted Jade Lake development in their midst as a bad precedent — "that’s been a disaster".
"They promised some affordable housing, they made all sorts of [promises] like this, and it hasn’t worked out."
Asked by another resident what guarantee he could give that he would stick to his goals, Hingston replied: "I can’t give you a guarantee, all we can do is our best".
Asked about his own development experience, he responded: "I have some development experience, and that’s all I’m going to say tonight".
To scepticism about his plans for a commercial skifield where there is often little snow, he said Bowen Peak would be a 365-day tourist attraction whether there was snow or not.
In an email to Hingston the next morning, attendee Chris Karl first told him: "It takes a certain amount of conviction to stand in front of a room where no one appears to support your vision and continue advocating for it.
"For that, I genuinely respect your willingness to engage directly with the community."
Karl then crystallised what many other residents felt at the meeting: "I have listened carefully to the argument this proposal will protect native birdlife, preserve the environment and safeguard the natural character of the landscape.
"Yet I cannot reconcile those goals with a project that proposes major earthworks, extensive concrete infrastructure, commercial buildings, a gondola, chairlifts, roads and large-scale modification of the mountain itself ...
"It is difficult to speak of preserving a landscape while simultaneously reshaping it on such a significant scale."
Hingston, for his part, said he was taking the feedback seriously and was still amending his plans.
"It’s an ongoing process, and I don’t know where it’s going to be in a few months’ time when we lodge it, and I certainly don’t know what the expert panel will decide."
