RCL Homestead Bay Ltd applied through the fast-track legislation to develop land on State Highway 6, between The Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu, known as the southern corridor.
The proposal of 1438 lots is nearing the finish line with a set of draft conditions released just before Christmas and both applicant and submitters making comment on these conditions.
The Homestead Bay application was heard by a panel made up of Queenstown lawyer Jayne MacDonald (chairwoman), environmental scientist Dr Jane Kitson, engineer Alan Pattle and resource consent hearing commissioner Rosaline Day-Cleavin.
The panel said in draft conditions about transport matters, in the absence of contrary expert analysis, it placed material weight on the uncontested transport assessments produced by the applicant, while taking into account the practical issues and refinements raised by agencies and other parties.
The panel said no expert transportation evidence was provided by any commenter.
In the comments on the conditions to the panel, NZTA said this approach was very problematic for the current application and for future applications, not only in the Southern Corridor in Queenstown but also nationally.
The Fast Track Approvals Act (FTAA) said the panel was to "invite written comments on a substantive application from various parties".
Parties were currently only provided with 20 — to be 15 under the FTAA amendments — working days to respond with any "comments".
Parties invited to comment were often considering multiple applications on top of other business and did not have the time or resources to respond at a detailed level, NZTA said.
NZTA outlined the vast experience of its five staff used for its submission.
"NZTA considers that the potential impacts of the Homestead Bay development on the operation and safety of the corridor would be significant," the agency said in its report.
But the applicant said in its comments it could not be expected to fund corridor-wide works beyond the scale of its effects. A "hold point" , proposed by NZTA, would create significant uncertainty for the project.
Furthermore, "hold points", or triggers reliant on further upgrade works to the north being completed, were likely to be complicated by several factors.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council wanted a condition to ensure connection to council’s assets was at the sole discretion of the council as owner of the network these assets would connect to.
RCL Homestead Bay Ltd said unnecessary wording was proposed within the condition around that. If connection to council’s services was agreed, the terms of the agreement could be worked through at the time.
Lakeside Estates Homeowners Association had also submitted and said it was disappointed the panel did not set a requirement for mounding and planting along the highway boundary to establish a state highway buffer zone/screening.
"Excluding a requirement to protect viewpoints from the state highway will have a detrimental impact on Queenstown as a whole," the association said.
The timeline for the application said a final decision was set to be released on February 18.
