The Environment Court yesterday began a two-week hearing to determine whether the multimillion-dollar Parkins Bay golf course development should be granted a resource consent.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council granted consent 18 months ago, in May 2008, but three submitters have appealed.
The Upper Clutha Environmental Society and Wanaka holiday home owner Dennis Thorn want the consent overturned, while the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust is dissatisfied with access conditions and wants more meaningful and significant walking and mountain bike public access.
The Wanaka Golf Club has joined the proceedings, because it was an original submitter, and will also give evidence at some stage over the next two weeks.
The pros and cons of the 18-hole championship course and associated facilities on Glendhu Station have been aired extensively since the development emerged in 2005.
It includes three, two-storeyed lodges, housing 12 visitor accommodation units and 42 residential and visitor accommodation dwellings (reduced from 50).
Supporters and opponents have squared off on what constitutes sustainable management of natural and physical resources of the farm, which is owned by the McRae family.
The developers predict the resort will pump $10.7 million a year into the Upper Clutha economy and create up to 210 jobs.
The appellants say it will have significant adverse effects on landscape and amenity values.
Despite the passage of five years, interest has not waned and the hearing drew the biggest public attendance at an Environment Court hearing in Wanaka in recent years, with more than 30 people in the Edgewater Resort conference room come to listen to the opening submissions.
Judge Jon Jackson and commissioners Charles Manning and Di Menzies are conducting the hearing, and the applicant expects to call 13 witnesses.
The case opened with submissions by Parkins Bay Preserve Ltd's lawyer, Mark Christensen, and the first witness was golf course designer, John Darby, of Arrowtown.
Mr Christensen told the court the case was "not just a landscape case".
Landscape considerations were important but the court should "resist the reductionist attempts by the appellants to convince you that this case is really only about landscape", Mr Christensen said.
The landscape provisions of the district plan were no more important than the provisions that encouraged tourism and recreational opportunities, he said.
The golf course was not some sort of Trojan horse by which the residential component could slip by unnoticed.
That position overlooked the integrated nature and purpose of the development, he said.
Mr Darby's evidence had been supplied earlier to the court and the appellants and was taken as read, allowing cross-examination to begin straight away.
Answering questions by lawyer Russell Ibbotson, for Mr Thorne, Mr Darby explained it was considered the best of three Wanaka sites studied.
The rejected sites were at the Outlet, within Wanaka's inner growth boundary, and the other was at Dublin Bay.
Having a location close to population was critical - in his opinion the Jack Nicholas course at Kinloch had failed because of its distance from amenities - and a stunning visual site was fundamental to a golf course's success.
Providing accommodation went hand in hand with a "destination activity" such as golf.
Mr Darby rejected the argument golfers do not need exceptional scenery to take part in their sport, saying people who walked for fitness also enjoyed scenery such as that provided by the Routeburn Track.
When questioned by Upper Clutha Environmental Society advocate Tony Borick Mr Darby confirmed he believed the course should cost between $6 million and $10 million to build, although economics expert witness Phil McDermott would give evidence later in the hearing that a $12.9 million budget would be needed.
Mr Darby also told the court a final decision had not been made yet whether individual titles would be issued to unit holders.
