Aspiring Queenstown flying fox operator Ziptrek is one step closer to getting off the ground after the Queenstown Lakes District Council granted the company a lease and licence to operate from reserve land on Ben Lomond at a meeting in Wanaka on Tuesday, despite an 11th-hour attempt by competitor Skyline Enterprises to present new information.
Ziptrek has been trying to get permission to operate a commercial flying fox since 2006.
Skyline, which operates a gondola and luge from the reserve area, submitted against the proposed ziplines.
The course layout has been an important issue, with proposed ziplines and luge track extensions crossing the same land.
Councillors expressed frustration when told by regulatory services manager Roger Taylor that Skyline had presented further information at 48 hours notice, which had not been seen by the hearings panel.
That information was confidential and might have had an impact on the hearings panel, so Mr Taylor recommended councillors delegate authority to chief executive Duncan Field to see if he could mediate.
If he could not, the lease and licence could come back to the next meeting for approval, Mr Taylor said.
Mayor Clive Geddes said the new information was not relevant.
The council could not act as a defacto hearings panel and was only being asked to adopt the hearing panel's recommendation.
Mr Taylor said the council was being asked to grant a lease or licence over a particular course layout, and if that needed to change in the future, Ziptrek would have to go through the whole consent process again.
Mr Field supported a mediation attempt.
If mediation was successful, it would probably lead to amended consent application, he said.
Cr Leigh Overton, who was on the hearings panel, said once a hearing was finished that should be the end of it.
The council could only set aside or accept the panel's recommendation, it could not amend it.
There had been no evidence at the hearing that any mediation was likely, he said.
Cr Kath Gilmour said the situation was "simply unbelievable", Ziptrek was a positive business and she hoped they would get a chance to "get on with it".
The council unanimously adopted the hearings panel recommendation approving the lease and licence, and made an amendment to clarify the ziplines being approved were those shown in maps presented to the hearings panel.
Despite winning its sought-after lease and licence, the company still faces a judicial review of its resource consent, brought by Skyline.
