Hotel approved - with warning of 'domino effect' to chase Queenstown views
A luxury hotel to be built on top of a parking building in central Queenstown "firmly opposed" by neighbouring property owners has been given green light after a fast track consenting process.
But those who have made the decision have warned of the likelihood of a "domino effect" with new developments seeking to build higher and higher chasing Queenstown's iconic vista.
After tweaks to the original proposal, there will now be 173 rooms for guests in the six-storey development, to be constructed on top of the podium level of the Man Street commercial parking building.
One of the renders, depicting a one-lane Man Street, at odds with council plans (Image: EPA).
The project is being progressed by Queenstown Hotel (NZ) Limited Partnership, which has links to Sir John Davies' Trojan Holdings and Australia-based Katdan Hotels.
Resource consent has been approved by an independent panel under the Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act.
But the decision is not without controversy.
The hotel will be up to 24 metres high and concerns about the impact it will have on views - both from above and below - have been thrashed out in a series of back and forths between various experts during the consenting process.
Ultimately the panel, comprised of Phil Page, Hoani Langsbury, and Rachel Dimery, says in its decision, "We have no doubt that the neighbours on the north side of Man Street will be disappointed by our decision".
The panel says these neighbours were "firmly opposed to the proposal".
"Having visited those locations, we can understand why."
Views will be lost due to the "non-complying height of the buildings", and the adverse effects of that are "more than minor", the panel concludes.
"The domino effect" this could cause is also acknowledged in the decision.
"That is, if the landowner in front builds above the height limit and blocks your view, then each landowner in turn can be expected to seek the same treatment to recover the views lost. And if that happens, then building height rules will lack any utility or integrity. That issue has weighed heavily in our thinking.
"In the Queenstown context, perhaps more than most, the availability of views drives the market value attributed to real estate."
However, in granting consent, the panel has sought to secure some public wins - 24-hour access to a viewing platform and daytime access to a green roof area - to balance the adverse effects of the building's height.
"It is for the applicant to decide whether to give effect to the consent on that basis," it says.
The decision interestingly calls into question the accuracy of some of the renders provided as part of the resource consent application.
It says the renders depict Man Street to be a single lane, which is "at odds" the transport assessment.
"In short, Man Street has been designated as a town centre bypass. One member of this panel sat on that requirement for a designation. The outcome of giving effect to the bypass designation is not what the renders show. We therefore take no account of what the public environment looks like in the renders since so far as we know, there is no legal basis for them."
The decision comes 148 working days after the application was lodged with the Environmental Protection Authority.
The resource consent conditions are in the decision report published here.
Main image (Supplied/EPA): A render of a new luxury hotel planned to be built atop a commercial parking building on Man Street in the Queenstown CBD.
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