Southland District Council resource management planner Alexandra Smith has recommended the application for the proposed development near Lake Te Anau be declined and submissions have been made public ahead of a hearing on the matter at the end of this month.
The Department of Conservation and mana whenua are among those who have opposed the application.
Submitters have also raised concerns the regional council, Environment Southland, rushed related applications through when it approved consents in May last year.
Environment Southland issued a non-notified resource consent to Scott Farming 2012 Ltd to discharge agricultural effluent to land from 1600 cows; to use land to build and use an effluent storage pond; and to use land for the wintering barns without public notification in May last year.
The farming company is now seeking consent from the district council to build the 14,460sqm complex of four wintering barns and related earthworks.
In recommending the proposal be declined, Ms Smith said the dairy-barn complex would have the "largest footprint proposed in the Southland region".
The scale of the proposed winter barn complex — more than 14 times greater than what the rules permit — meant it could not integrate with the landscape.
It would add to existing effects of the business already adversely affecting the landscape, and earthworks from the proposed construction could also contaminate waterways and harm the nearby Waiau River ecosystem.
"I am of the view that the proposal will result in adverse effects on the environment that are more than minor," Ms Smith said.
The proposal has been supported by local farmers, including Federated Farmers Southland junior vice-president and sharemilkers’ section chairman Jason Herrick.
In his submission, he said the development would be an efficient use of resources that would benefit the social and economic wellbeing of the applicant and the wider regional economy.
With a large herd number such as the applicant’s, the best way to ensure good environmental outcomes was to winter the cows "off paddock", he said.
While the barns were larger than allowed under the district plan, they provided the only practical way for the farmer to winter cows off paddock and allow for mitigation of run-off and effluent.
Southland Forest & Bird branch’s Ruth Shaw said it was not clear from the application how many more cows would be on site over present levels, or whether outdoor winter grazing practices would continue.
Doc director-general and chief executive Penny Nelson said at only 45m from the Rainbow Reach Conservation Area, the proposed barns would encroach on the 100m setback required from a conservation area. The application should be declined unless that land could be adequately protected, she said.
Te Ao Marama Inc iwi environmental adviser Stevie-Rae Blair said local runanga opposed the application.
It could have a negative effect on the visual landscape, the appropriateness to mana whenua had not been assessed, and the proposal had the potential to undermine the Ngai Tahu Claim Settlement Act.
In her submission, Kepler Oaks Chalet owner Helen Prendergast said Environment Southland’s decision to process the initial application without public consultation was "appalling management".
The regional council’s acceptance of dairying intensification on the Southland plains did not mean it should be allowed in the Te Anau Basin.
Emeritus Professor Sir Alan Mark has also contested the development, as reported by the Otago Daily Times on Monday.
The former chairman of the Guardians of Lake Manapouri, Monowai and Te Anau wrote to Environment Southland last week to "seriously recommend" that it reconsider its consent.
Environment Southland has defended its consent to the dairy development as an environmental improvement.
Integrated catchment management general manager Paul Hulse said the site had been used for "a number of years" to graze stock over winter on crop or pasture.
"It was assessed that the addition of a wintering barn will mitigate the potential for nutrient and sediment losses to water, as compared to the stock wintering outside.
"The consent they now have restricts the discharge of effluent to a maximum area of 150ha and depth of discharge to 5mm in order to mitigate the potential for leaching or run-off of contaminants to freshwater."
Mr Hulse said the location had a mix of soil types, some of which were free draining.
However, Environment Southland determined the effects on the environment did not meet that threshold for public notification.
