The application by the Roman Catholic Church for resource consent to develop a $2.5 million 112-pupil primary school in the Speargrass Flat valley, near Arrowtown, may end up in the Environment Court.
Queenstown Lakes District Council planners at a council resource consent hearing on Wednesday stuck by their earlier recommendation that the church's application should not be granted.
They stated that the zoning for residential development was 40sq m, whereas the school proposed a 700sq m building, which should trigger full non-complying resource consent applications, as opposed to the commissioners granting discretionary resource consent.
The 30 people who oppose the application are mainly residents in the valley and include QLDC officers, planners, two independent commissioners, consultants and a former CivicCorp employee, prompting commissioners David Collins and Leigh Overton to raise the issue of potential conflicts of interest.
Mr Collins on Monday said that many of those opposed were people he knew or with whom he had worked.
"I don't feel there is a conflict. I'm sure any bias can be put aside," Mr Collins said.
The commissioners gave no indication of their likely decision during the three days of hearings this week.
The hearing was on Wednesday adjourned for up to a month to gather new evidence and to allow parties their right of reply.
Informal talks outside the hearing with several parties who presented submissions revealed most believed the application would be approved, with conditions.
If approval is given, it would not be hard to imagine that those opposed to the application, given their professional knowledge, would pool resources and appeal to the Environment Court.
Several of those opposed are openly in favour of this option.
From a planning point of view, a decision in favour of the development would likely not set a precedent - resource consents have been awarded in the past to a motel, restaurant and sports centre in "rural residential" zones in the wider Central Otago district.
There is also an "overlaying consent" at Speargrass Flat, allowing development of visitor accommodation based on existing consent granted to a former lodge on the site.
The lodge burnt to the ground in 2006.
That existing consent could arguably allow a hotel development larger than the proposed school to be built on the 2.6ha site, and other existing zoning could also allow the site to subdivided for up to five homes.
