Council to decide fate of Five Mile plan

An extraordinary meeting tomorrow will determine the Queenstown Lakes District Council's position on appeals to a plan change to part of the Five Mile development in Frankton.

The meeting will also discuss rezoning a small section of land that borders the two stages of development.

The smaller 7.7ha stage one section was bought by Auckland developer Tony Gapes and supermarket operator Progressive Enterprises in November, while Allied Farmers owns the 23ha stage two section.

The stage one section of the land contains "Hendo's hole", a large pit left in the ground by former owner David Henderson.

Queenstown Lakes Mayor Clive Geddes said council needed to "determine its position" in relation to appeals to plan change 19, which rezoned the stage two section of the land for a mixed residential, commercial and industrial use.

Twelve appeals have been received by the Environment Court on the plan change.

The council had to prepare information for the court proceedings but the process was unlikely to be completed this year because the Environment Court was bogged down in appeals, something the council intended to discuss with the Government, Mr Geddes said.

The meeting will also discuss a proposal to withdraw a section of land that borders the two sections and falls under the stage two zone.

Senior policy analyst Alyson Hutton said because plan change 19 is under appeal it was inoperative – placing it in limbo. While consent applications could be made, they would generally have to be notified, while most applications on the stage one section would be processed on a non-notified basis.

The purchase of stage one had uncovered a small sliver of stage two land that overlaps stage one, which could unnecessarily complicate the resource consent process.

Mr Geddes said while the original stage one owner had agreed to realign a road along the boundary, the new owner had decided not to, which had caused the overlap.

The change was minor and Mr Geddes expected it to pass through the council relatively unopposed.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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