The question of who is responsible for maintaining an overgrown reserve at Fernhill will be decided at a hearing in Queenstown next week.
Monad Pacific Management has applied on behalf of Joel and Carol Hoffman, owners of the Heritage Villas, to delete a condition of the resource consent requiring them to landscape the council-owned reserve adjoining their property.
If the application is successful the council will have to take over the maintenance of the reserve.
Land use consent was granted in 2002 to build a 108-room hotel and 68 apartment units on the Fernhill Rd property.
Only 36 apartments have been built and the reserve has become overgrown.
A report by landscape architect Marion Read says the landscaping and planting that had been done was not in accordance with the approved plan.
Tussocks and flaxes had been planted throughout the site.
No lawns or mounding had been created and trees that were to remain had been removed, she said.
The area was to have gravel pathways, lawns and a petanque court.
The council had taken a $559,000 bond for the reserve work but it had been lodged with finance company Bridgecorp, which later failed.
The application says the unrealistic expectation to maintain the site was unfair and unreasonable.
The council had failed in its duty by accepting a bond other than from a recognised trading bank and failing to obtain a substitute bond when Bridgecorp went into receivership.
The hearing will be held on Monday.
