Councillors, as landowners of Bobs Peak reserve, had to approve the plans for the company to apply for resource consent.
Councillors voted six to five to approve construction of the new zipline (flying fox) and associated trails to allow customers to complete the Ziptrek course, descend and exit the reserve at Brecon St.
Ziptrek had already been granted resource consent for its sixth and final cable to end at a large platform on several trees close to the Skyline gondola base terminal.
One of the trees was cut down by its neighbour Skyline Enterprises in October 2008, which prevented Ziptrek from finishing its construction within the project's current consent.
A temporary solution was to guide its customers from the end of the fourth cable line, along a short walking track back up to the Skyline Restaurant and then travel back to town using the gondola.
Lakes Property Services manager Joanne Conroy said the proposed zipline would be located to the south of the approved zipline.
A new trail would be needed to link the nearly completed fifth zipline with the upper Tiki trail where customers could access the proposed sixth line.
Customers would get off the sixth zipline and walk to the lower Tiki Trail and proceed on to Brecon St, as originally intended.
She said the original sixth zipline could be constructed in future if an engineering solution was found to replace the crucial felled tree.
She said the impact of the new zipline would be minimal and would not change the scale of the operation.
Several councillors queried how much effort Ziptrek had put into finding an alternative structure for the original sixth line before looking for approval for a completely new route.
Cr Lyal Cocks said Ziptrek should wait until the fifth line was completed and an engineering solution found to replace the felled tree.
He asked why it could not be replaced with an artificial pole.
Ziptrek director Trent Yeo said the company wanted to use natural resources for its ecotours and "concrete and steel" went against its sustainable philosophy.
The new line was much simpler and less expensive to build.
"We are trying to make the best solution out of what we've got," he said.
Council approval included the condition that overhead power lines be laid underground within seven years.
