Warwick Goldsmith, of Anderson Lloyd, made the comment to commissioners David Mead, Scott Stevens and Jan Caunter on Wednesday, the third day of a resource consent hearing for the Queenstown Country Club special housing area.
Mr Goldsmith, representing Grant Stalker and Donald Bennett, Shotover Country Ltd and the Milstead Trust, sought for the commissioners to seek a contribution from the retirement village developers, Sanderson Group, towards a full upgrade of the intersection of State Highway 6 at Ladies Mile and Howards Dr.
His clients were generally in support of the application, but believed the proposed development would have an adverse impact on the existing T-intersection, particularly for those attempting to turn right from Howards Dr on to the highway, governed by a 100kmh limit.
Initially the parties sought for Sanderson Group to fund a full upgrade of the intersection to create a roundabout.
That was no longer being pursued given "the complete lack of guidance for roading upgrade decisions of that nature in any of the relevant council or NZTA policy documents".
Such upgrades, he said, seemed to be "an amorphous, largely political process" which depended in many cases on the availability of funding rather than the need.
Because there would be several contributors to the need for an intersection upgrade it would be ‘‘unreasonable’’ for Sanderson Group to fully fund that.
Mr Goldsmith said there was a "desperate need for someone in this process" to proactively forward plan — and the commissioners had an opportunity to do so.
"NZTA’s failure to proactively plan for necessary traffic upgrades within the Queenstown Lakes district borders on the legendary — the fact that NZTA has no current plans to fund any upgrade of this intersection is not surprising, given the lag time between development and NZTA’s planning processes, which generally seem to involve planning in three-year steps.
"NZTA does not appear to consider, let alone address, the possibility or desirability of requiring a financial contribution from this development towards a future potential intersection upgrade, which might partially explain NZTA’s perennial funding problems."
Mr Goldsmith said traffic on that stretch of highway had doubled in the past 18 months and problems with the intersection — which NZTA said had no crashes in five years — were "coming to us just like a train".
"The place has gone ballistic.
"Any one crash could be fatal and ... a fatal crash has very significant consequences.
"This is all relevant to considering whether it is appropriate to require the applicant to make an ‘if and when’ financial contribution to an intersection upgrade which, by its very nature, must significantly reduce the likelihood of a fatal accident."
He submitted Sanderson Group be required to make a "reasonable and appropriate contribution" to the full upgrade cost and submitted that would be $1,372,500, based on a similar situation at Shotover Country.
In that case, through plan change 41, the developer accepted responsibility to build a $3million roundabout on State Highway 6, which joins Stalker Rd and Lower Shotover Rd with the highway, once the subdivision reached a trigger point of 450 lots available for residential development and use.
The additional development cost was $3750 plus GST per residential lot, which was tax-deductable.
Under that scenario, the 366-lot retirement village development would equate to a $1,372,500 contribution, only required if or when the intersection upgrade occurred.
"With indicative sale prices between $700,000 and $2.5million for an individual residential retirement unit, the QCC development can afford the modest contribution of $3750 per lot."
He submitted a bonded financial contribution would be appropriate, meaning the financial obligation would rest with the retirement village’s fee simple owner, which would be the entity, or associated with the entity, which continually resold the Licences to Occupy as they became available.
Mr Goldsmith said the special housing area process was a privilege and provided a "huge benefit" to developers — cutting the time of a project from at least five years to 12 months.
"The financial benefit of that shortened timetable is massive.
"It [the Housing Accord and Special Housing Areas Act] is making sure developers pay their fair share ... and do not leave the council and NZTA [paying] $3million for a roundabout [in the future]."
The commissioners adjourned the hearing and reserved their decision.
