Veteran Queenstown developer Dave Henderson’s praising council’s resource consent staff after gaining approval for commercial and storage
units.
He’s been planning an industrial park on his 50-hectare plot at Victoria Flats, near Gibbston, arguing it fulfils the resort’s desperate need for industrial-zoned land as it’s hidden from public view.
His company, Cardrona Cattle Company Ltd, originally appealed the council’s proposed district plan, which didn’t allow for the development.
Henderson was then flabbergasted when, after council staff recommended mediation, council’s planning and strategy committee rejected the idea.
Instead, by his estimation, council will now spend $250,000-plus of ratepayers’ money defending its position in an upcoming Environment
Court hearing.
Last year, he accused Wānaka councillor Quentin Smith of driving that decision, however Smith told Mountain Scene he was only one committee member.
Meanwhile, Cardrona Cattle Company applied for consent for 122 commercial and 176 storage units, which it’s now been granted.
‘‘This is a good example of what happens when you take the politicians out of the equation and you leave it to the council’s resource consent
staff, very ably headed up by Fiona Blight,’’ Henderson says.
‘‘She encouraged me to go to notified application, which we did — and in the end there were no objectors, which was expected — and then she encouraged me to have commissioners finally hear the application, which I did.
‘‘And we got commissioners who considered the whole thing simply, rationally, logically, with out any political motivation, and we got a sensible result for both ourselves and the community.’’
But Henderson says his other yard-based activities, like a resource recovery park, are still dependent on the Environment Court appeal.
On that, he says he’s still ‘‘very determined’’ to fight the council.
