Outrage as hearings panel cut short submission

Residents living on and around Tucker Beach Rd after the proposed district plan hearing at...
Residents living on and around Tucker Beach Rd after the proposed district plan hearing at Heritage Hotel in Queenstown yesterday PHOTO: JOSHUA WALTON
Residents opposing a farming family's bid to rezone part of its land to allow a 200 home development have reacted with outrage after not having their concerns heard in full.

About 30 members of the Tucker Beach Residents Society attended a hearing at the Heritage Hotel in Queenstown yesterday to object to the Middleton Family Trust's proposals for a large section of its rural land to be rezoned as a low-density residential area.

The hearings panel considering stage 2 of the Queenstown Lakes District Council's proposed district plan (PDP) cut the society's verbal submission short as its evidence was filed too late.

Ross Healy, a Tucker Beach Rd resident and the society's spokesman, said the site could not absorb the development without being "entirely degraded".

"Several of the society's member residents own properties on land which was previously sold by the submitter as rural residential lots."

He said these residents "will have their amenity value significantly impacted".

"People are justifiably angry because we've all been talking about this for the last two months.

"To feel you don't have your day in a hearing to get your point across is totally unacceptable."

The chairman of the panel, Denis Nugent, said the society submitted evidence after the deadline and therefore the panel would not hear the group's submission and supporting evidence in full at the hearing.

Mr Nugent said it would be "unfair" to the Middleton family to do so and he did not think the panel could "take it any further than that at the moment".

The Middleton family, which has farmed on Queenstown Hill for generations, wants land generally located between Lake Johnson and the Shotover River to be rezoned as the "Tucker Beach residential precinct", to allow space for 209 homes.

Under the PDP, the family's land would be divided between the lifestyle precinct and the rural amenity zone (RAZ), which has stricter rules concerning development.

In its written submission, the society objected to the proposals due to concerns over the negative effects the development would have on the rural landscape and pressures it would put on existing infrastructure.

It claimed Tucker Beach Rd would have to be widened to accommodate increased traffic. It was also suggested the road would have to cope with 9800 more vehicle movements a week and that potential congestion on SH6 and the Shotover Bridge would affect people living in the whole Wakatipu Basin.

Shotover Jet also called for the Middletons' submission to be rejected, manager Wayne Paton stating the proposed development would be of "significant detriment to the area".

Despite economist Michael Copeland claiming the development could be good for the district's economy by increasing competition, residents suggested the properties would not be "affordable housing".

The proposed RAZ and lifestyle precinct zones have been included in the PDP to protect rural land by limiting development in certain areas.

The residents society has opposed the family's submission and supported the recommendation of council planners to reject it.

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