Mountain village promoters take a second shot at Castle Hill

Press, 4 November 1978, Page 16

Mountain village promoters take a second shot at Castle Hill

By

GARRY ARTHUR

Environmental groups have so far lodged no objections against a revived scheme to build a holiday resort village in the mountains near Castle Hill between Porter’s Pass and Arthur’s Pass. . When the first scheme was put forwad eight years ago, it met strong opposition from the Tussock Grasslands Institute and from environmental groups, mainly on the grounds that a village on the chosen site would be a blot on a particularly striking landscape. The developers wanted to build their village between the highway and the spectacular limestone outcrops near Castle Hill Station. Now they have moved it more than a mile further up the road to a site which was recommended by the Lincoln College authors of “Recreation in the Waimakariri

Basin”, a study published six years ago tor the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute. “The combination of landscape and physical constraints would suggest that Upper Enys is the site best suited for future development,” said the study. That site is on Castle Hill Station near Enys where the original homestead and a hotel were built last century by the runholder, John D. Enys. It has since been included in the Malvern County district planning scheme as a special rural zone for the establishment of a resort village as a conditional use. The man behind the resort village scheme is Mr John Reid, a Christchurch property developer who was involved with Messrs H. P. Holt and J. G. Williams in the Chateau Com-

modore Hotel development. He also developed the Kelvin. Heights resort at Queenstown and is involved in the WaLer Peak resort as well as other holiday village schemes in the Marlborough Sounds and the Bay of Islands. Once his first scheme was knocked back by the Malvern County Council,

Mr Reid made a deal with the Crown to secure the recommended site at Enys. His company owned only 27 acres of freehold at the site, but the Crown was interested in turning the limestone outcrops at Castle Hill into a reserve. A swap was arranged. The Crown got its reserve, and the developers obtained the freehold of the

whole proposed village site of about 36 ha. The actual owners are Castle Hill Run, Ltd, a trust set up for Mr Reid’s children. Although the site is zoned for the purpose, the county’s district planning scheme is not yet operational, so the developers have had to seek planning approval. They have prepared a most elaborate,

bound-and-illustrated booklet in support of their application to the council for a change of use of the land. Objections close on November 15. Castle Hill Developments, Ltd, say their purpose is to meet a demand for holiday sites, accommodation, drinking and restaurant facilities, in the Broken River area.

Their village will cater for day visitors who go to the mountains for tramping, skating, riding, and barbecuing, and also for passing traffic. Building sections will be sold for mountain cabins or chalets, and overnight accommodation will be provided for tourists in a licensed lodge.

An artificial lake would be filled from the Thomas River, which bounds two sides of the village site. The river would also supply the village’s high-pres-sure water supply, via a reservoir. Oxidation ponds are planned for sewage disposal.

Buildings in the resort’s commercial centre will follow the style of highcountry stations, and the developers will impose strict architectural control over the cabins erected by purchasers of individual sites. They will have to blend with the mountain landscape. using dark stained timber, logs or natural stone, and roofs will have to be dark brown, dark green, or grey. All house plans will have to be approved by the developers, and no fences will be allowed. The lake will be designed so that a shaded section freezes in winter for ice-skating. The developers also plan to build an artificial ski slope nearby.

A windmill will draw water to an ornamental horse trough in the village centre. There will be riding stables, a blacksmith’s shop and a “chapelmuseum.”

Low-cost bunkhouse accommodation is planned in the “Shearers’ Quarters.” Some of the log cabins will be for sale on the basis that the owner will share the return which the Castle Hill Lodge receives for renting out the unit during the owner’s absence.

The developers propose to maintain the grassland character of the site. Lawns and other urban features will be discouraged in favour of a rural-style informal setting. The landscape plan includes considerable planting of larch, pine, beech, birch, redwood, cyress, and spruce. The area is home for a number of rare plants, plants which grow there mainly growing among the

limestone outcrops. Four are found nowhere else in the world. One is the Castle Hill buttercup (Ranunculus crithmifolius), which has its own reserve.. Written permission from the Commissioner of Crown Lands is needed to visit it.

Mr Reid feels sure that he has met all likely objections by complying exactly with Malvern County Council’s requirements “The village has been specifically designed to meet and satisfy the earlier -objections,” he says.

The new scheme is considerably scaled down