Cardrona would look like a "Wild West film set" if a proposed plan change for Mount Cardrona Station was approved, the Environment Court in Queenstown heard yesterday.
Landscape architect Stephen Brown gave evidence on behalf of Brooklynne Holdings Ltd, which is appealing the Queenstown Lakes District Council's proposed plan change 18.
He said the plan change would lead to development which was "incongruous, intrusive and out of place".
"Such development would almost inevitably appear incongruous, precisely because it emerges out of nowhere and sits in splendid isolation - a bit like a Wild West film set," he said.
He said the plan change would "significantly expand" the village development and push its centre on to the terraces well above the Cardrona Valley floor.
The naturalness and simplicity of the landscape would be affected by a solid band of urban-type development, he said.
"It would be a highly intrusive and disturbing feature of the alpine backdrop to Cardrona, intruding into views down the valley and diagonally across it," he said.
The plan change set out to engineer massive change to an outstanding natural landscape, he said.
"The potential scale and extent of development could not sit comfortably in its landscape setting without profoundly changing the character and values of that setting," he said.
The existing village was nowhere near its development capacity or potential, he said.
"[The plan change] appears to be yet another ad hoc centre that the Queenstown Lakes District Council has decided to support and impose on the district's landscapes without any real regard for its own district plan strategy and objectives," he said.
Brooklynne Holdings Ltd, headed by developer Kathy Lynne, of Albany, has resource consent for several projects in the valley's second rural visitor zone, including a 58-bed backpackers hostel with cafe and shop.
The plan change proposes to move Cardrona Valley's rural visitor zone, double it in size from 16ha to 32ha and rezone 92ha of Mount Cardrona Station into protected open space.
It would allow for the construction of up to 1900 accommodation units.
The hearing continues tomorrow.
