Mt Cardrona Station Ltd requested a plan change to the Mt Cardrona Station special zone, to allow a 12-hole golf course to be built about 2km north of Cardrona township.
Councillors Ella Lawton, Tony Hill and John MacDon-ald voted to accept the pro-cessing of the plan change at a meeting of the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s planning and strategy committee in Queenstown yesterday.
It will be publicly notified.Mt Cardrona Station owner Chris Morton said much work was still to be done but he was excited the process had started.
"These things are a matter of doing the right thing and having the right people involved ... It’s a lot of work, but with land you want to make sure you get everything right."
It had been almost 10 years since the Mt Cardrona Station special zone was first proposed and the commercial environment had changed quite considerably since then, Mr Morton said.
"If you look around since 2007, there’s been quite a shift in the Queenstown market and at the time what people thought was the direction the area was heading in has changed quite a bit."
As well as the the golf course, a four-star hotel and up to 800 units for both residential and commercial developments could be included in the zone.
A wastewater scheme for the development would have the capacity to service both the Cardrona Alpine Resort and the rest of the valley, solving the area’s wastewater issue.
"It’s not just a golf course, a hotel and some houses; it’s going to add value to the wider community as well."
Representatives from both the Cardrona Alpine Resort and the Cardrona Residents and Ratepayers Association told the committee members they supported the plan.
Residents and ratepayers association president Blyth Adams said the proposal was in keeping with the type of development residents wanted to see.
A handful of residents had been opposed to the original plan but it seemed most, if not all, residents were in favour of the new one, he said.
Wastewater disposal was a major issue in the valley, after the cancellation of a wastewater pipeline to Wanaka, and the development would solve that issue, Mr Adams said.
Cardrona Alpine Resort infrastructure and operations manager Erik Barnes told the committee the resort had a long-standing relationship with the directors of Mt Cardrona Station and supported the plan change. Part of the plan change included a car-parking and shuttle area for the resort. Parking near the bottom of the skifield access road was a priority for the resort and the plan change was a step towards that, Mr Barnes said.
