Corbridge Estates Partnership Ltd is seeking consent to subdivide 300ha of land between Wanaka Airport and the Clutha River into 35 residential lots, along with a jointly owned farm.
The society is submitting against the proposal and a hearing in front of independent commissioners is planned for next Wednesday.
Society president Julian Haworth on Tuesday received an email from Corbridge lawyer Graeme Todd seeking clarification over whether the society would present evidence or submissions at the hearing.
The email goes on to say: ''To be open with you I can advise that the applicant's position is if it does not obtain consent it will be converting the property to a dairy unit/s.''
Mr Haworth yesterday said he believed the applicants were ''holding a gun to the head of the commissioners''.
''It's kind of standover tactics - you back off with your submission; if we don't get consent, we will convert this to dairy.
''It's standover tactics against the society and all submitters.''
Mr Haworth believed Mr Todd was being instructed by the applicant to ''put the pressure on the submitters; put the pressure on the council''.
Mr Haworth said the email should make no difference to the consent process but was ''an attempt to make a difference''.
''It's a bit of a hollow threat in that the development being proposed by the applicant would have considerably more adverse effects than converting that area to dairy anyway.''
In response to an email from the Otago Daily Times, Mr Todd said he had no idea what Mr Haworth was referring to when he suggested the contents of his email were ''standover tactics''.
''As I noted in my email to him I was simply being open with him in respect of my client's intentions. The same are no secret and simply reflect the reality of the next `best' and most economical use of the land.''
Mr Todd confirmed he was acting under instruction from his clients and said he would make the email correspondence available to the independent commissioners.
''It is not my practice to seek to catch submitters by surprise and wished to alert Julian and the society to my client's intentions as I will be providing such information to the hearing next week.''
The society wants 13 houses cut from the development.
