Last weekend, the township hosted one of its biggest community meetings to discuss Milford Dart Ltd's proposal to build a 11.3km tunnel linking the Routeburn road and the Hollyford road, near Te Anau.
A vote found the 100 people present opposed the tunnel because it was perceived as a threat to Glenorchy's role as a long-stay tourist destination.
The manager of Blanket Bay, near Glenorchy, Philip Jenkins, was not at the meeting, but has since given his submission to the Department of Conservation (Doc) outlining his concerns.
"We absolutely are opposed to it for a number of reasons, based on the fact that Glenorchy offers the remoteness and peace and wilderness experience. There have been movies filmed here for that reason, and a commercial operation like the tunnel would do much to destroy that."
Mr Jenkins said Glenorchy's "head of the lake" image personified it as a destination and if buses were heading towards Milford Sound, they would not be staying and would perhaps bypass the town altogether.
"No, it has not one benefit at all; we cannot see any benefit."
The proposed 80 bus movements a day on the Glenorchy-Queenstown road would also create problems and the "time-saving" purpose of the tunnel would be redundant.
A regular road user, Mr Jenkins said the time saved by the proposed tunnel would not be worth the expense.
"I struggle to understand why you would spend $150 million on a tunnel to save 45 minutes each way."
Glenorchy residents had not been consulted by Milford Dart Ltd since 2005, when the idea was in its initial stages.
The former Destination Queenstown director was concerned not only for Glenorchy, saying Te Anau was increasingly becoming the "gateway" to Fiordland and he saw no reason to change it.
"If you bypassed Te Anau, it would have a significant effect on them and their tourism operations.
"The whole thing about going to Milford Sound is it is a unique place. By increasing the number of buses, ultimately what will happen is people will wish not to go there because it will be spoiled by commercial development."
Glenorchy Community Association member Mark Hasselman said the area would lose its "lifestyle, peace and tranquillity. It is the end-of-the-road destination, which we wish to retain."
The sheep and beef farmer said Glenorchy's tourism product was based around the longer-stay experience and he could not see one gain from the tunnel.
He expressed concern private ownership of the tunnel could mean "control over the tourism product".
The submission deadline is now February 20 and, so far, Doc has received more than 120.
Tunnel worries
Glenorchy Community Association concerns about the Milford Dart tunnel:Routeburn road would have to be widened.
- Power supply would have to be built from Glenorchy.
- About 25,000cu m of spoil to be disposed of.
- Threat to ecological values of the area.
- Peace and tranquillity of area affected.
- Overnight-stay appeal lost or town completely bypassed.
- Traffic concerns.
- Deterioration of visitor experience.
- Impact of construction noise.
- Concern for maintaining world-heritage-site status of Fiordland National Park.
- The underestimation of cost and construction time.
- Private ownership of tunnel.
