The latest round of legal proceedings regarding one of the most fought-over parcels of land in the country began yesterday with submissions on whether the Environment Court has jurisdiction to direct higher order outcomes for plan change 19: Frankton Flats.
The Environment Court released its interim decision on plan change 19 in February and highlighted where it was concerned jurisdiction might be an issue.
The court asked interested parties to file jurisdictional issues in June and those issues were expected to be heard while the court sits in Queenstown this week.
The section of Frankton Flats subject to the plan change was separated into large strips of ''activity areas'' identified with the letters ''A'' to ''E'', with ''A'' along Frankton-Ladies Mile State Highway 6 and the others back to back consecutively heading in-land.
The areas promote and enable different activities to occur within them.
Foodstuffs South Island Ltd counsel Jennifer Crawford submitted it was questionable whether the court has jurisdiction to enable yard-based retail in ''activity area D'', which covered 30% of the site.
Land either side of the proposed eastern access road is zoned ''activity area E2'' and is mainly owned by Queenstown Airport Corporation and Shotover Park Ltd, with the northwest remainder owned by Queenstown Central Ltd.
It was asked if the court has jurisdiction to enable residential activities above ground level within activity area E2 outside the outer control boundary and, if it does not, does the court have jurisdiction over residential activities in the same activity area to the east or west of the eastern access road.
Other points of law the Environment Court was given to consider were whether the court has jurisdiction to reduce the width of activity area E2 east of the eastern access road, and whether the court has jurisdiction to apply a retail cap to the same area.
Foodstuffs is the named appellant in the proceedings, along with Queenstown Airport, Trojan Holdings Ltd, Manapouri Beech Investments Ltd, Queenstown Central Ltd, St Asaph Investments Ltd, Air New Zealand Ltd, Shotover Park Ltd/Remarkables Park Ltd and the Queenstown Lakes Community Housing Trust, with respondent Queenstown Lakes District Council and interested parties Jacks Point Ltd, New Zealand Transport Agency and Progressive Enterprises Ltd.
The council is expected to complete its submissions today, followed by Queenstown Central.
The court will then listen to jurisdictional arguments about activity area D, then activity area A and then the jurisdictional issues relevant to the Manapouri (Shotover Garden Centre) site.
