Queenstown Lakes District councillors may withdraw part of a plan change for Frankton after the new owner of part of the Five Mile development appealed to the Environment Court.
Councillors will debate the proposal at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday.
Council senior policy analyst Alyson Hutton said the purpose of the meeting was to gain authorisation to withdraw the part of plan change 19 Frankton Flats B which overlapped with the operative Frankton Flats A zone.
"Currently, as a result of the notified plan change 19 . . . there is a sliver of Frankton Flats B zone structure plan which overlays the Frankton Flats A zone," she said.
Frankton Flats B is the land between Queenstown Airport, Glenda Dr industrial area, State Highway 6 and Frankton Flats.
In a report to the extraordinary meeting Ms Hutton recommends the council withdraw part of the plan change because the overlap would "create unnecessary uncertainty and difficulties in processing resource consents and obtaining high-quality urban outcomes for the Frankton Flats area".
She said since Queenstown Gateway Ltd, the new owners of the small block of the Five Mile site, had started planning its development, the issues had become apparent.
She said the company had appealed the plan change to the Environment Court, but "resolution via agreement may be difficult and take significant time".
She said the council could withdraw all or part of a plan change without consultation under the Resource Management Act, as long as the plan change was not operative and an Environment Court hearing had not taken place.
"Withdrawing the part of the plan change that removes uncertainties concerning the structure plan would be beneficial," she said.
The council would also save money by not going through with the appeal by Queenstown Gateway Ltd.
Ms Hutton had previously said the budget set aside for the commissioners' hearing into plan change 19 had "blown out" by at least $109,000 in two years.
She recommended any appeals be mediated "in-house" as far as possible to keep costs down.
The public will be excluded so the council can "maintain legal professional privilege".
