Height issue in hotel proposal

An independent planning commissioner will decide whether a proposal for Queenstown's largest hotel development will be publicly notified.

Brecon St Partnership has applied for consent for a 468-room development of four buildings, a piazza and 12 ground-floor retail spaces near the gondola base building.

The 34 Brecon St site, occupied by an outdoor mini-golf business, borders Queenstown Cemetery and Lakeview Holiday Park.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council recommended last month the application be publicly notified on the grounds the tallest building would be eight or nine storeys and up to 27.7m high.

That was significantly higher than anticipated by the planning framework and would lead to ''more than minor'' effects.

In response, Brecon St Partnership has requested its application be put on hold while commissioner Jan Caunter decides on the issue.

Director Graham Wilkinson said he sent documentation to the commissioner yesterday and anticipated a decision ''in a week or two''.

He and his team considered the building's height appropriate in the light of provision for restricted discretionary activities in plan change 50 (PC50), which extended the resort's town centre zone towards the gondola.

The council's position was at odds with that of its own urban design peer review and that of PC50's commissioners, who had considered a building higher than 15.5m would be acceptable provided its effects on visual amenity and landscape were appropriately mitigated.

''We went to the council a year ago to put a design in, and didn't want to put in anything that surprised anybody,'' Mr Wilkinson said.

In his report, council planning practice manager Blair Devlin said the PC50 hearings panel had rejected a 24m height limit on the site, but accepted buildings taller than 15.5m could be advanced through the consent process.

However, the building in question was 3.7m and one storey higher than the 24m height initially sought by Brecon St Partnership during the PC50 process, and would have an ''adverse effect in terms of sheer scale and dominance'' on the surrounding area, particularly the neighbouring cemetery.

Mr Devlin said that, besides the building height issue, other grounds for public notification included a lack of on-site areas for loading, pick-up and drop-offs, coach parking, as well as noise and earthwork effects.

''If the commissioner determines not to notify the application on the basis of the above environmental effects, it is recommended the application be publicly notified on the basis of the special circumstances that the site was adjacent to the cemetery.''