New vehicle dealer welcomed by developer

The developers of Queenstown’s Remarkables Park Town Centre have welcomed a commissioners’ decision granting resource consent for an upmarket new vehicle dealer on a corner site near the entrance to the centre.

GWD Russell Ltd has been granted consent for the Lucas Place site by commissioners David Clarke and Leigh Overton, following a hearing in September.

While the decision acknowledged the concerns of residents in nearby Robertson Street, to which the building also has frontage, the commissioners said although they had been used to having a ‘de facto’ open space reserve across the road from them, that was never going to last due to zoning changes made in 1999.

Remarkables Park co-director Alastair Porter, whose company had supported the application, said while he was “delighted” with the news, it was disappointing that GWD Russell had faced a year of costs and delays due to a long-winded planning process.

“Our development company wanted to assure submitters on Robertson Street that they went to considerable lengths to get a high-quality development on this site. The design of the building by Anna Marie Chin of Crossan Clarke Carnachan Chin Architects is outstanding.

“It superbly complements the background vista of the towering Remarkables mountains.

“In terms of the existing zoning, we could have built a bus depot on this site with more intrusive effects with little or no delay, but that would have been a much larger building and much less attractive for nearby residents.

“We firmly believed the GWD proposal was always going to be approved because the overall effects of the proposal were no more than minor,” he said.

Mr Porter said he applauded the commissioners for taking the wider considerations on board.

“As a community what we need is much more consideration given to economic development opportunities such as this one, which will provide development and permanent work as well as improved services to the community,” he said.

“There are always two ways of looking at the rules, either to facilitate or frustrate development, and the current balance needs to change to have more regard to enabling well-planned facilities that benefit the district.”

The 2,504m² architecturally-designed GWD Russell building will house a vehicle showroom, a servicing garage, a parts department, offices, parking, a car wash, an area to display new and used vehicles, and a car rental area.

Areas surrounding the development along Lucas Place and Robertson Street will be fully landscaped and no service activities will be easily visible from any street.

The commissioners said they considered the applicant and architect had made “a considerable effort” to design a building that respected the residential neighbourhood, given what could be built as of right.