Bid to rezone land fails

Developers have failed in a bid to rezone Peninsula Bay land to allow for more than 20 new...
Developers have failed in a bid to rezone Peninsula Bay land to allow for more than 20 new residential sections. The circled area is where the new sections would have been situated. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery.
A plan change which would have resulted in more than 20 new sections being added to a Peninsula Bay subdivision in Wanaka has been declined.

Independent commissioners Mel Gazzard, David Mead and Andrew Henderson have recommended plan change 51, which sought to rezone about 4.7ha of land partly zoned "open space" as residential thus allowing for 26 new  sections, be declined.

Part of the land is also in an area of outstanding natural landscape, which has its own  stringent development rules.

The land is owned by Infinity Group’s Peninsula Village Ltd and Wanaka Bay Ltd, owned by Murray Frost, of Wanaka.

As Peninsula Bay Joint Venture, the companies applied to the Queenstown Lakes District Council to change the district plan.

Councillors  adopted the commissioners’ decision at a full meeting of the council in Queenstown on Tuesday. It is still possible the developers will appeal the decision in the Environment Court.

Bike Wanaka, the Upper Clutha Environmental Society and Forest and Bird all opposed the plan change on the grounds it restricted access to the land, which had been zoned as open space when Peninsula Bay was first developed.

The developers made changes to the original submission on the plan change, including removing two sites and reducing the size of the proposed zone change from 6.11ha to 4.47ha.

In their recommendation the commissioners said the loss of the open-space-zoned land would have had a negative impact on the recreational values of the area.

They also said there was no certainty a proposed financial contribution would be spent in a manner that would compensate for the lost recreational opportunity.

Landscape values of the area would also have been weakened and the stated ecological benefits would have been marginal at  best, they said.

tim.miller@odt.co.nz

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