Developers and the Queenstown Lakes District Council have failed to reach agreement over the council's affordable housing policy.
Developers in Queenstown and Wanaka - including Infinity Investment Group Holdings, Remarkables Park Ltd, Queenstown Hill Developments Ltd, Five Mile Holdings (in receivership) and Peninsula Road Ltd - are taking the council to the Environment Court over its Plan Change 24.
The council adopted Plan Change 24 in December but developers are appealing the decision, which requires them to provide a portion of land for affordable housing.
Legal counsel for the developers and the council met in the Environment Court at Queenstown for a pre-hearing conference.
They said mediation talks had failed so far and asked for a hearing timetable.
Judge Jon Jackson asked if the developers were saying there was no shortage of affordable housing in Queenstown.
"That is amusing for someone who doesn't come from Queenstown. I can't afford one," he said.
Legal counsel for the developers said they would be calling planners, a demographer, economists and a sociologist to give evidence at the hearing.
Judge Jackson gave all parties deadlines for evidence to be filed with the court and said a two-week hearing would be held in March 2010 in Queenstown.
The Arthurs Point Protection Society appeal against the council's decision to grant Totally Tourism resource consent to use a heliport at Arthurs Point was also aired at a pre-hearing conference.
Judge Jackson set down a timetable for evidence to be submitted.
He said a one-week hearing would take place after March 1, 2010.
