Delays in deciding whether two Wanaka developments can go ahead have been defended by council planners who claim the ‘‘complicated'' resource consent decisions need ‘‘proper consideration'' from the independently commissioned panels.
The Parkins Bay Golf Resort and a gondola application from Cardrona Valley skifield pioneers the Lee family were the subject of lengthy resource consent hearings last August and October.
Parkins Bay dual applicants Bob and Pam McRae and Arrowtown golf course development company Darby Partners have been waiting more than four months for a decision from independent commissioners Neville Marquet, Jane Taylor and David Clarke, after the hearing was reconvened to consider more information in December.
The Lees' gondola company, One Black Merino Ltd, submitted more information in January after commissioners Christine Kelly and Jane Taylor released an interim decision asking for expert evidence on the economic impacts of the gondola.
The interim decision said the commissioners anticipated ‘‘we would be comfortable to grant consent'' once the economic information was provided - which the Lees did, in February.
The head planner at Queenstown Lakes District's planning and regulation organisation Lakes Environmental, Brian Fitzpatrick, has defended the time taken by the commissioners and says the two developments are ‘‘very complex and significant cases''.
‘‘We understand the frustration of both sets of applicants, but these two decisions both required a substantial amount of information to be considered,'' he said.
Lakes Environmental had a standard period of 70 working days from when an application was first lodged for a decision to be made, and 20 working days after a notified consent hearing was closed, he said.
However, the two cases were complex. The commissioners had to write decisions to withstand scrutiny should they be appealed.
Both cases had not been ‘‘closed'' after the hearings, with the commissioners instead ‘‘adjourning procedures'', which gave them the opportunity to request additional information to consider as part of the final decision, he said.
Commissioners in the Parkins Bay golf resort case had asked for two sets of further information, while One Black Merino Ltd's application had also been subjected to a request for extra expert evidence.
The two Wanaka cases were ‘‘far from typical'' and ‘‘very different'' from the average resource consent application.
In March, Lakes Environmental delivered 81% of nonnotified resource consent decisions within 20 working days. About 5%-6% of resource consent applications were notified, which was consistent with national averages, Mr Fitzpatrick said.
However, given the small number of notified consents, if ‘‘one or two'' took a long time, ‘‘it can skew your average decision times disproportionately''.
Any illness or sickness affecting commissioners was a delay permitted by the Resource Management Act. It is understood Ms Taylor broke her arm in January.
An email from Lakes Environmental resource consent manager Rachel Beer released last week said a decision for the Parkins Bay Golf Resort was two weeks away, while the commissioners for One Black Merino's gondola proposal have indicated they would release their decision mid-April.
