Plans to build a vehicle depot near the entrance to Wanaka have been opposed by nearby landowners.
Peter King has applied for resource consent to build a passenger transport depot facility on the Luggate-Wanaka Highway (State Highway 6), near the intersection with Riverbank Rd.
The 6.81ha site, which is zoned rural general, backs on to the Cardrona River.
The facility will include administration offices with on-site manager's residence, vehicle cleaning and refuelling, vehicle storage and maintenance building and the installation of a 10,000-litre diesel storage tank
It is proposed the site will operate 24 hours a day, 364 days a year.
The plan has attracted opposition from neighbouring property owners and the Otago Fish & Game Council.
A resource consent hearing on the application will be held in Wanaka on Tuesday, September 19.
The site had been chosen because of the limited area of industrial-zoned land in Wanaka, the amount of land needed for the depot and the need to avoid environmental effects on neighbours, the resource consent application stated.
As the nearest neighbouring residential property was about 80m away from the site, the environmental effects from the depot would be minimal, it stated.
Six submissions were made against the proposal, five of them by neighbouring property owners.
In his submission, Riverbank Rd resident Graham Dowdall said that he and his wife had bought their property because of its rural setting and felt secure in the fact the proposed site would only ever be used for agricultural purposes.
The noise, dust and lighting from the depot would spoil the rural setting of the area and would also affect those who walked along the riverbank, he said.
Other Riverbank Rd residents were concerned the site would lower the value of their properties.
Fish & Game environmental officer Nigel Paragreen said the organisation opposed the proposal because of the environmental risks it posed, such as the runoff of oil and chemicals and the bunding and storage of fuel.
Mr Paragreen acknowledged the applicant had put a significant amount of work into identifying and mitigating the potential risks, but the site's location right next to the Cardrona River posed an unnecessary environmental risk.
The only way to avoid the risk was to relocate the site, Mr Paragreen said.
