Rural-residential rules need to be fixed urgently if an Environment Court judge cannot accept evidence on district plan facts, opponents of the consented primary school on Speargrass Flat Rd, near Arrowtown, say.
A group of Speargrass Flat Rd residents, who did not give their names, sent a joint statement to the Otago Daily Times last week.
The statement was sent from the same Queenstown legal office which represents appellants Ayburn Farm Estates Ltd, trustees of the Mill House Trust, plus six other parties.
The residents' statement followed the appellants' High Court appeal against the whole decision by Environment Court judge Melanie Harland and commissioners Marlene Oliver and Heather McConachy for resource consent for the proposed two-stage development of a 112-pupil school.
The residents said in their statement they were "disappointed and extremely concerned" about the implications of the Environment Court decision for people who chose to live in rural areas.
"If you live in the rural residential zone, the court believes you should expect to have non-residential facilities built next door, such as health services, community centres, halls, churches, day-care facilities, schools, or educational facilities," the residents said.
"In the case of the current school proposal, this includes over 100m of continuous solid timber or concrete noise control fencing up to 2m high against property boundaries."
The residents said the community told the Queenstown Lakes District Council it did not want urban scale, non-residential development in rural areas and the school project was against the council's plans and policies.
"We are respectful of the needs of St Joseph's School, but there are far more appropriate locations within the St Joseph's catchment ... that would better serve the needs of students, parents and district as a whole," the statement said.
Catholic Education Office director Tony Hanning, of Dunedin, said it would be "inappropriate to comment" on the statement, as a notice of appeal was lodged in the High Court.
