Queenstown Hill Station owners the Middleton family appealed to the court after the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s proposed district plan hearings panel rejected its bid to rezone part of the farm to allow a housing subdivision.
At a hearing in March, the trust presented plans for a 34-lot development spread over three distinct terraces, overlooking the Shotover River, at the end of Tucker Beach Rd.
It sought an upzoning from "rural amenity" to "lifestyle precinct", and challenged the district plan’s rating of the land as having a low "landscape capacity" to absorb new development.
In the decision, Judge John Hassan and commissioner James Baines said lifestyle precinct zoning was inappropriate for the 55ha site, but accepted the existing zoning’s default minimum lot size of 80ha was "too restrictive" for two of the terraces.
The court directed the landscape capacity ratings for those areas to be raised, enabling more development than the status quo.
It also approved a modified version of the existing zoning for the two areas, setting bespoke rules for minimum and average lot sizes, building setbacks and other matters.
Although the court has left final decisions on any subdivision of the site to the resource consent process, the decision enables fewer lots than sought by the Middletons.
The rural lifestyle housing already established along Tucker Beach Rd, running between the site and the Quail Rise subdivision 3km away, was "not a valid benchmark" for assessing the site’s capacity to absorb new development, the court said.
It was bordered by an outstanding natural landscape, two outstanding natural features — the Shotover River and Sugar Loaf hill — and a Department of Conservation recreation reserve.
It had a feeling of remoteness from the "madding crowd of Frankton Flats".
The purpose of rural amenity zoning was to protect areas that had reached or nearly reached a threshold where further development would erode landscape character and visual amenity.
However, "limited and carefully located and designed" new development in the zone could be appropriate.
Although housing on the upper terrace was not out of the question, the four lots proposed there were "plainly excessive and inappropriate".
It was highly visible from several public viewing points in the area, including a cycle trail.
The northwest terrace had capacity for a "much less intense and more sensitive" design and layout than the family’s proposal, but there was potential for some new lots in addition to the existing farm homestead.
The lower terrace had the most capacity for housing, and the modified zoning would allow a 7000sqm minimum lot size and 1.5ha average density.
The Middletons have had to drastically scale back their development ambitions for the site since making their original submission to the proposed district plan in 2015.
That submission sought low-density residential zoning over 71ha to enable more than 1100 homes, and proposed a new road over Ferry Hill to connect the site to the Ladies Mile highway.
In a second submission in 2017, the family sought rezoning for a 200-home development.
Both the Middleton family and the Tucker Beach Residents Society — which participated in the appeal as an interested party — declined to comment for this story.
