Affordable housing in Frankton Flats is on the horizon and the people filling the houses will wish to shop at a Pak'n Save, the judge and commissioners who approved the supermarket for Queenstown say.
Foodstuffs was refused consent for the supermarket in October last year by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
In the decision report, Judge Jon Jackson and independent commissioners Ken Fletcher and Heather McConachy labelled the views of the council and opposing partner, Queenstown Central Ltd, as subjective.
"When we stand back and look at the big picture, we are struck first by the subjectivity of the opposing parties' concerns, and secondly by how well a no-frills supermarket, offering cheaper groceries, on this site will complement the objectives and policies of PC [plan change] 19," they said.
Council regulatory and corporate general manager Roger Taylor said that the council was unlikely to comment on anything a judge had said.
When spoken to on Wednesday, Mr Taylor said the council was in the process of coming to an understanding of the decision and would not comment on it because of the potential impact on plan change 19.
"It's too early at this stage to make any comment," he said but hinted the council might release a statement in a week.
A contentious issue of the hearing had been whether, if granted, the plan change would be pre-empted.
Under the change, the 2.2ha of land on which the supermarket is to be built will be zoned for "light industry and related business activity" as part of the areas E1 and E2 of the Frankton Flats B zone.
Also included in the plan change was a policy to provide "short-term residential uses [and] affordable housing, mixed live/work units".
In response to this the decision report said "it is reasonably foreseeable that the occupiers of those kinds of [relatively cheaper] residential units will also wish to shop at a Pak'n Save."
Under the operative district plan it was noted the area fell into the lowest landscape grade in the other rural landscape category , not a "visual amenity landscape" as maintained by the council.
The supermarket "is expressly contemplated by the most relevant objective in the operative district plan" in promoting integrated and attractive development, and the judge and commissioners were satisfied the proposal also met the "amenities objectives" of plan change 19.
