A retrospective resource consent application to cover a large quarry established off Fraser Dam Rd at Earnscleugh is expected to be lodged with the Central Otago District Council by the end of next week.
Queenstown contractor Steve Rout Ltd has contracted the services of Dunedin-based planning consultants Boulder Planning to prepare an application for extraction and displacement activities which exceed the limits set down in the Central Otago district plan.
The application will be publicly notified.
The company's non-consented schist quarrying operation was shut down by the council last week after residents reported the operation.
An inspection showed considerably more earth had been removed or disturbed than the 3000cu m allowed in the district plan.
Council planning team leader Ann Rogers had told the operator the plant must remain closed until a retrospective resource consent was obtained.
Ms Rogers met Andrew Henderson, from Boulder Planning, yesterday and she agreed to allow two weeks for the preparation of the application.
"That was to allow time for a complete application to be submitted," she said.
The company had removed a large knoll off the top of a hill, done considerable work on a building platform, and formed a road to the bottom of the property.
The road stops at the fence next to the entrance to the Kopuwai Conservation Area on Omeo Gully Rd.
Neighbours claim the company had been working on the site since last September.
Local lobby groups reacted strongly to the news a large piece of land had been altered without consent and called for the company to be prosecuted, but Ms Rogers said the council would not prosecute provided the operator applied for a retrospective resource consent.
All disturbance of land, whether within the district plan or not, required the operator to replace the subsoil, topsoil and vegetation after the work was completed.
