Cardrona Valley residents and ratepayers came out in support of the Queenstown Lakes District Council's proposed plan change for Mount Cardrona Station, in the Environment Court yesterday.
The hearing in Queenstown is an appeal by Brooklynne Holdings Ltd against plan change 18.
Cardrona Valley Residents and Ratepayers Society committee member Ben Gordon, a valley farmer, told the court the council and Mount Cardrona Station had kept the residents involved in the plan change process.
"Consultation and open communication has occurred.
This has enabled us, as residents, to ensure that we understand what the outcomes will be and also that the plan change is in line with what we, as residents, want to see happen in our community," he said.
Snow Park manager and residents and ratepayers society committee member Sam Lee said the 25km drive from Wanaka added to the financial cost of operating a business in the valley because staff had to be transported to the park.
"In my opinion, providing the platform for affordable housing within the valley, as is proposed by the Mount Cardrona plan change, would be an advantage to both our business and the community life of the valley.
"Being able to provide affordable housing opportunities for our staff will help us to retain staff of a higher quality and for a longer period," hetold the court.
He said he could not see any negatives in the plan change.
"We need more people living at Cardrona to make the community work.
If that doesn't happen, I can see that those remaining families will eventually move away, which would be a great shame."
He said development in the valley was inevitable.
"The only threat to the Cardrona Valley's susceptibility is not development, but development under the current plan, which I consider the Mt Cardrona Station plan change amends," he said.
Appellant 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 provide up to 1900 permanent, short term, visitor and worker accommodation units.
The hearing continues next week.
