The Queenstown Lakes District Council has set aside two days to hear evidence for and against the resource consent application.
The consent hearing will be conducted by independent resource management commissioners Ian Munro (chairman) and Wendy Baker, and Cr Glyn Lewers, of Queenstown.
QLDC planner Sarah Gathercole has been appointed to assess the application and make a recommendation but her report is not expected until April 29.
Mr Thiel will not be presenting in person, the hearing being held via Zoom.
Mr Thiel and his partner, Matt Danzeisen, lodged their resource consent application for a luxury complex on 193ha of rural-zoned land accessed from Mt Aspiring Rd, about 8km west of Wanaka’s town boundary.
They volunteered a publicly notified process.
The council received seven submissions — four opposed, and three requesting changes.
Those opposed include the Upper Clutha Environmental Society, the Environmental Defence Society, and the Longview Trust, associated with Wanaka businessman John May.
In 2011, the societies won a legal action against a six-house subdivision of the same block of land by the previous Auckland-based owners.
The Otago Regional Council, the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust and the Guardians of Lake Wanaka are the other submitters.
In the society’s submission to the council in October last year, Mr Haworth said the society opposed the large scale of the development in an outstanding natural landscape already under pressure from development.
The application states the buildings have been designed by architects Kengo Kuma & Associates, who designed the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. The building would disappear into the landscape.
There would be 10 guest accommodation units, a private ‘‘owner’s pod’’ with a floor area of 565sqm and other lodge management buildings.
Mr Thiel and Mr Danziesen also propose a separate 40sqm meditation building closer to the lake.
The applicant’s planners, Rough and Milne, say the complex would be reasonably difficult to see from beyond the site boundaries.
If consent is granted, the complex would provide accommodation for up to 24 guests.
-- MARJORIE COOK
