On the second day of a Commissioner’s Hearings Panel into the application in Cromwell yesterday, David Whitney spoke to his report recommending CHP Development’s application be turned down.
He said the 173-lot subdivision proposed was a "full-on residential subdivision development" that did not fit with the rules of the rural resource area in which the holiday park sat.
He said the applicants had said they had chosen not to pursue a plan change because of the time it could take to process, but cited a previous plan change that had been completed within 13 months, from the time it was requested to the time it became operative.
The rules of the rural resource area stipulated an average lot size of not less than 8ha, and a minimum of not less than 2ha. Within the rural resource area, rural residential areas allowed average section sizes of 2ha.
Mr Whitney said not all land in the Central Otago District Council’s rural resource zones was of a "semi-arid, tussock and schist tors" nature, and mixed development incorporating numerous buildings was "not uncommon" in rural areas for operations such as farming, horticulture and viticulture.
However, the expectation of development in rural resource areas was still for "a more open form of development", and many such areas had a "park-like" appearance, he said.
The dense development of the proposed Cromwell holiday park subdivision would see lots as small as 250sq m, on which semi-detached homes or rows of units — potentially two-storeyed — could be built. It was "profoundly different" from what you would expect in a rural resource area, and he stood by his recommendation to decline the subdivision application.
Commissioners asked whether swales, berms and verges in and around the development would end up costing ratepayers to maintain, but lawyer for CHP Development, Bridget Irving, said the panel could impose conditions to say they needed to be maintained by house occupants.
Mrs Irving said it was "utterly irrelevant" whether the applicant should have requested a private plan change, and urged Commissioners not to "waste all ofour time by sending everyone back to the drawing board to simply achieve the same outcome".
She said CHP Development was trying to achieve a high quality subdivision that would "set a new bar for the type of residential development expected in Cromwell". It would not create any significant adverse effects, and would raise amenity values.
She also did not accept the application would set a precedent, and said it would not result in a "slew of applications" to council.
Final submissions comprising some changes to proposed consent conditions will be filed by Mrs Irving next week, after which Commissioners will formally close the hearing.
