A proposed multimillion-dollar community house for Wanaka has been approved after a settlement was reached between the Wanaka Community House Trust and opponents of the building's location.
The proposed Wanaka Community House is to be build on Anglican Church land in McDougall St.
Independent commissioners granted consent for the building in June after finding the impact of the building particularly on parking traffic and parking would be ``no more than minor''.
Minor errors in the resource consent allowed opponents time to appeal it to the Environment Court, after they missed the initial 15-day appeal period.
Wanaka Community House Trust chairwoman Dame Sukhi Turner said she was delighted the consent process was now finished and the trust would now look to start the tender process next year.
The trust had agreed to move the building 1m away from the church, towards the vicarage on the corner of Brownston St and McDougall St, and alter some landscaping conditions, Dame Sukhi said.
She expected more organisations would approach the trust to be part of the community house now the consent process had finished.
A team had already been working on finding donors to fund the $3 million needed for the building, , she said.
Spokesman for the appellants Peter Gordon said the group was bitterly disappointed the community house would be built in a residential area on the church's land. The appellants were not against the community house, but were against its location, Mr Gordon said.
He blamed the independent commissioners for granting resource consent, as once that had been done that there was little the appellants could do.
One of the major changes the appellants had asked for was for the length of the building be reduced, providing more space between it and the church, Mr Gordon said. But the length was not changed.
There were worries the financial burden of the community house would eventually fall back on the church once the 30-year lease had ended, he said.
