United States billionaire Peter Thiel’s ongoing battle to obtain resource consent for a 330m-long luxury lodge overlooking Lake Wānaka is heading to the Environment Court.
The Environment Court confirmed yesterday it would be hearing the case after mediation broke down between Mr Thiel’s company, Second Star Ltd, and the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
"(The) evidence timetable ends in the new year and a hearing will be set down shortly after, with dates to be issued to parties in the next little while," the court said.
The development comes just over a year after a council resource consent panel rejected granting Second Star Ltd’s application for consent for a lodge on the shores of Lake Wanaka.
It was declined because of concerns over the 1165sqm structure’s visibility from the nearby Glendhu Bay public walking trail.
"All members were quite shocked at the frequency at which substantial parts of the proposal would be in plain, direct view ... and in a way that would reinforce a scale of development at odds with the ONL [outstanding natural landscape]," the panel said in a decision released at the time.
Mr Thiel, a co-founder of financial technology company PayPal, bought the 193ha Damper Bay farm block for a reported $13.5 million back in 2015.
A spokesman for the council said it could not comment on the matter that was before the court.
