A request to remove restrictions on the number of flights from an airstrip near Jacks Point will be considered at a hearing in Queenstown next week.
Skydive Queenstown Ltd, which operates tandem skydiving, has applied for a resource consent to vary a condition of its existing consent, thereby removing the restriction of 35 flights per day.
Instead, the company wants the condition to relate to noise levels over a seven-day average, seeking for noise from aircraft operations - taking off, climbing and landing - to not exceed Ldn 50dBA (seven-day average) at any Jacks Point residential section, or at the Jardine homestead.
The reason for seeking the variation was to enable the applicant to operate with greater flexibility than was allowed by the "arbitrary limit" in place.
Independent commissioner David Whitney will hear the application next week to determine whether or not it should be publicly notified.
The airstrip is located about 10km from Queenstown Airport along State Highway 6, midway between Jacks Point and Remarkables Station.
The application said Parachute Adventure Queenstown Ltd was established in 1990 and the company's product was a high adventure activity, ideally suited to Queenstown's adventure tourism market.
"The company operates 364 days per year subject to the seasonal fluctuation of tourist demand and to weather suitability. Whilst the maximum number of flights made in any one day has been 35, the average number of flights is 18 during peak periods and substantially less during off-peak periods. For example, flights have been as few as 38 for the entire month of June," the application said.
Inoperable days, due to adverse weather conditions, reduced operations by about 38% a year and the 226 days a year it did operate (62%) were not necessarily "full days".
"Many are part days due to weather changes during the day or lack of demand."
If the condition was varied, it would allow the firm to operate more than 35 flights on days when weather conditions were suitable and there was demand.
The company predominantly used small single-engine Cessna aircraft, ensuring its flight paths minimised aircraft noise to local residents.
The Jardines are the owners of Remarkables Station. Their airstrip is the only strip in the Wakatipu Basin clear of scheduled flight paths.
"With respect to noise ... the applicant company has operated in this area of the district for six years and has never received a complaint relating to noise. The airstrip is separated from its nearest neighbour (over 2km) by rolling hills and trees."
Aircraft altitude was usually 1500ft above ground before it crossed the Jardines' boundary and there were no residents within 2km of takeoff and landing approaches, the application said.
Skydive Queenstown Ltd was seeking for the application to be processed on a non-notified basis and was consulting with several parties who were believed to be potentially affected by the application.
The firm felt the continued operation would have "only a minor effect" on the environment, but Lakes Environmental planner Wendy Rolls disagreed.
Ms Rolls said the condition the company was seeking to vary was imposed to control noise from aircraft takeoffs and landings "although it is a crude tool for that purpose" and did not account for quieter aircraft reducing overall noise levels.
Her recommendation to commissioner Whitney was for the proposal to be publicly notified because it would have, or was likely to have, adverse effects on the environment which were "more than minor".
"Noise events could increase from 35 up to 140 a day even if the maximum Ldn of 50dBA were not on a seven-day average, but on a daily maximum [and] the seven-day average appears to permit an even larger number of flights, up to 245 in a Cessna 206."
Ms Rolls said the modelling and acoustic information provided was not sufficiently accurate or detailed; there was no provision for access to the measurement sites to enable ongoing monitoring; monitoring of the proposed condition would be "prohibitively costly and time consuming" and no determination had been made of the vehicle movements that could be associated with increased flight numbers.
The initial resource consent for the activity was granted in 2007 on a non-notified basis because written approval had been obtained from five people and bodies who may have been adversely affected.
However, written approval had only been obtained from one of those parties to amend the condition, she said.
The hearing to decide public notification will be held on Monday at the Crowne Plaza.
