$30M hotel plan defeated

Press, 20 December 1985, Page 4

$30M hotel plan defeated

Queenstown conservation groups have defeated plans by the Tourist Hotel Corporation to build a $3O million hotel on reserve land. In a decision released yesterday, the Planning Tribunal upheld an appeal against permission to build the 200-room hotel. A copy of the decision was not available yesterday, but counsel for a number of individual objectors, Mr John Milligan, saidi last evening: “ApplicatidL for planning consent was turned

down by the tribunal, placing weight on the existence of reserve and its designation for reserve purposes in the scheme. “There was also at the same time a proposal by the borough to change the scheme, amongst other things, to alter the underlying designation of the reserve to residential five.

“The tribunal did not think much of residential one, the existing underlying zoning... but it thought the matter should be looked at

without the pressure of a particular development proposal” Mr Milligan said that the decision meant the T.H.C. proposal had been halted. Although the loser in Planning Tribunal cases may appeal to the High Court on a point of law, Mr Milligan said he did not think there was a chance of that in this case.

The T.H.C. had planned to build its hotel on the old Bucktams brewery site in the Saart of Queenstown, and had intended to include

some reserve land. Permission was granted by the Lakes, Queenstown, and Wakatipu combined planning committee. That decision was appealed against by a conservation group called the Guardians of the Reserve and several individuals. The Mayor of Queenstown, Mr John Davies, described the decision as tragedy for Queenstown and said it raised questions about the democracy of planning £S “I believe about str per

cent of people locally were in favour of the development but 30 objectors have been able to have the planning decision overturned,” he said. Mr Davies said he could not comment in detail until he had seen the tribunal’s full decision. But he said it was a black day for Queenstown and extremely disappointing for the tourist industry in New Zealand.