Concerns over Malaghans fast-track

A new Coronet Peak gondola is not a Trojan Horse to enable a massive housing and commercial development, says one of its backers.

Coronet Village Ltd has proposed a gondola from Malaghans valley floor up to the ski field and burgeoning mountain bike hub. But the proposal also includes a 780-home subdivision, commercial centre, private schools, a hotel, restaurant, and up to 800 carparks on land which is zoned rural and includes Outstanding Natural Landscape (ONL).

The consortium, directed by Ben Farrell in partnership with Rod Drury and Bernard Cleary, has put the concept forward for the Government's new Fast-Track planning application.

That's seen some locals push the panic button, forming the Malaghans Valley Protection Society.

Chairman James Hall says the development is essentially "a new town" in the rural valley between Arthurs Point and Arrowtown, and needs fully community consultation. He says initial media focus was only on the gondola, rather than the whole development.

"To have something like this slip under the radar and get approved for Fast-Track development would be damaging to the environment and character of the area and the long-term vision for growth for our district," Hall says.

The Society is concerned about the lack of infrastructure; stormwater, roading, drinking water, and power supplies. And, on its website, it says the argument the proposed gondola would reduce traffic and therefore carbon emissions is unsubstantiated and could be considered as a ‘greenwash’ in light of the larger proposal as a whole.

Queenstown-based tech billionaire Rod Drury, who founded finance software company Xero, says the consortium hears the Society's concerns and shares them.

"I had a good chat to them over the weekend to explain we completely hear what they're saying," he says. "The fast-track consent happened quite quickly, so we formed a consortium to basically share resources and put together a first cut plan. The idea was really to fly a kite.

"In hindsight, I don't think we all would have agreed with the intensity of the village and that's the very clear feedback we've had. We were getting a little bit of pressure from Government to put affordable housing in there, so I understand that's why it went in."

The Government asked for initial fast track applications, but has not yet confirmed how the process will go, or passed the required legislation.

"It's been sort of made up as we go along. We expect to get an indication over the next month ... and we are committed to having a public meeting and ongoing discussion."

He says the consortium won't just get a consent and push ahead with development. "There's no chance of that."

Drury, who is New Zealand's ninth richest man, has been a champion for the mountain bike scene since he arrived in town, and also backed many environmental causes and projects, including the eco-focussed Treespace development above nearby Arthurs Point.

He says personally, he's more interested in the gondola than the rest of the development, although understands there needs to be a conversation around where affordable housing is built in the district.

"I just want to do the gondola. We've been accused of green washing our property development and I'm certainly not into that.

"The group is concerned about the environmental impacts but we're just not going to let that happen. You can see the amount of work we've done on Lake Hayes, and what we're doing on Coronet Forest and Mount Dewar. It's just inconsistent with all the work we've been doing."

While things are "a little bit tense" at the moment, he believes the application will push forward the conversation about planning for the valley for the next 100 years.