Rod Drury pulls support from Coronet Village project

A high-profile supporter of the controversial Coronet Village development has withdrawn from the project on the grounds of unaligned values.

Tech entrepreneur Rod Drury was supporting the gondola aspect of the development, designed to transport mountain bikes up to the Coronet Peak ski area. However, Drury has had second thoughts after listening to local community opposition to the large residential development component of the project.

The multi-use development was destined for a fast tracked consenting pathway and includes a gondola, mountain bike facility and a comprehensive subdivision up to 780 residential units, alongside public roading and wastewater infrastructure.

"The community came up and said, quite rightly, 800 homes is not the thing,” Drury said. “We hear you. So, we backed out of that and said, that's actually not the right thing to do."

Rod Drury, no longer backing the gondola.

It appears the incompatibility of various parts of the development weren’t obvious to Drury during the initial stages of the fast-tracked project.

“At the end of that process, one of the parties put in 800 houses, which we were like, oh, that's probably not really us.”  Drury continues, “What we got wrong there was, we kind of thought that we're all loosely coupled, but we all got branded with the same idea. We got associated with some other people who probably didn't have the same values that we did."

James Hall, president of The Malaghans Valley Protection Society, set up in opposition to the Coronet Village project, believes Drury was potentially hijacked by others involved in the fast track subdivision process.

Paul Anderson, CEO of NZ Ski, continues to support the project. "No, we’re not out. We’re one of the three parties who submitted the initial fast track application. Our position is that we will work with any party who wishes to build the gondola on the lower mountain however we are not a funder of that part of the project."

Crux understands Drury’s withdrawal of support may have initiated something of a domino effect as other parties are now reconsidering their involvement in the gondola project.  

The Malaghans Valley Protection Society is unsure where this leaves the project’s fast track status. Hall understands an addition to a fast track consent requires reapplying to Government. However, he says the law isn’t clear when it comes to removing elements of an approved fast track consent process.

The full content of our wide-ranging interview with Rod Drury will be published by Crux later this week. 

Main image (Supplied): Coronet Village's gondola base as illustrated in its application to central government for inclusion in the Fast-track Approvals Bill.