A Queenstown man with a sale and purchase agreement on one of the apartments in the Wensley Developments Marina Baches in Queenstown told a hearing yesterday not all the apartment owners had approved the development company's new resource application.
Wensley Developments The Marina Ltd has applied for resource consent to let the 28 existing three-bedroom units as one and two-bed units.
The company had been letting single bedrooms last year, but Lakes Environmental fined it $750 for breaching its resource consent.
The application was heard before commissioner Trevor Shiels in Queenstown yesterday.
Philip Tompkins said he had a sale and purchase agreement for one of the units.
He had paid a deposit but had written to developer Ross Wensley to pull out of the agreement.
Mr Wensley had not accepted the withdrawal and was now suing Mr Tompkins to settle.
Mr Tompkins said he knew of at least 10 potential owners with sale and purchase agreements in the same situation,Mr Wensley's application says he had obtained affected party approval from all of the new unit owners through the body corporate.
Mr Tompkins said the body corporate did not have the right to approve the plans on behalf of the owners.
He said the community did not want the units split up into "bedsits" with no cooking facilities.
Lawyer Russell Ibbotson, representing Mr Wensley, said his client had interpreted his current resource consent as allowing "two-key letting" of the units.
Lakes Environmental disagreed so Mr Wensley was seeking a new resource consent to settle the issue.
The resource consent application did not seek any physical changes to the existing development.
The proposal would enable separate letting of the two-bedroom area with the kitchen, and the one-bedroom without a kitchen.
Mr Wensley wanted to increase flexibility in the letting arrangements to increase occupancy and commercial viability.
The proposal would not increase the development's peak occupancy so the noise and traffic effects would be the same, he said.
Lakes Environmental planner Wendy Rolls said letting out each room individually would create a need for a coach park on the site.
She recommended the application be granted because the adverse effects would be minor.
Mr Shiels reserved his decision.
