Artist impression of Winton Land's Northbrook Arrowtown, a retirement village and luxury boutique hotel.
Artist impression of Winton Land's Northbrook Arrowtown, a retirement village and luxury boutique hotel.
Chris Meehan’s Waterfall Park Developments can build a new $200 million retirement village and boutique luxury hotel scheme near Arrowtown, even though experts recommended against the scheme with many non-complying features.
The Winton Land chief executive applied to the Queenstown Lakes District Council to build Northbrook Arrowtown at Ayburn, hisnew heritage hospitality venue where 150 guests will be welcomed on Friday.
Late last month, independent hearing commissioners Richard Blakey and Wendy Baker granted consent with conditions for the non-complying scheme in the Wakatipu rural area.
The site is at 1 William Paterson Close and 1 Ayr Ave. An arrivals and amenities single-storey building with a floor area of 935sq m, a timber shingle gable roof form and timber shingle cladding and stacked stone are planned.
A further 23 care units, 12 serviced apartments and 13 residential apartments, communal and back-of-house facilities across four levels are planned. All up, 196 residences are planned for the retirement village.
The nearby Millbrook Country Club gave written approval for Northbrook Arrowtown and Meehan submitted that as part of his application, the commissioners noted.
The scheme was non-complying for several reasons, including the scale of non-residential facilities and breaching the maximum height limits.
Ayrburn is the vision of developer Chris Meehan.
Twenty submissions were received raising issues such as the effects of built-form scale, visual dominance, being out of character, and the effects on views from Millbrook.
Other issues raised included adverse traffic effects, water quality effects in respect of Lake Hayes, the development being outside the urban growth boundary and whether it was appropriately located, and height effects on the cultural landscape.
No applications supporting the scheme were received, the commissioners said.
Planner David Dwight recommended the application be refused due to the adverse effects of the activities being more than minor, how it would look, and other effects.
Helen Mellsop for the council said the proposed development was substantially higher and of significantly greater scale and bulk than anticipated according to the zoning.
Heritage hospitality venue Ayrburn, in Queentown, will open on Friday.
Moderate-to-high adverse effects would be created on visual amenity from private properties adjoining the zone.
The location, height and bulk of some buildings would adversely affect the legibility and expressiveness of the valley, and its memorability as a unique landform feature within the Wakatipu Basin, she said.
Adverse effects on legibility, memorability and perceived naturalness values of the landscape would be moderate in magnitude.
The landscape effects from the Northbrook development would be cumulative with those of existing resort development at Millbrook, existing rural living east of the valley, and the existing and consented development in Ayrburn Domain to the south, she said.
Neighbouring Millbrook Resort supported Chris Meehan's application for Northbrook Arrowtown.
The amphitheatre and the Mill Creek waterfall were important.
But the commissioners granted consent, subject to conditions.
One critic said the plans were inappropriate for an essentially rural area: “Do you want to live in a multi-level retirement apartment in the middle of a paddock?”
A Winton Land spokeswoman said yesterday Northbrook Arrowtown would be $180m to $200m once completed.
Meehan expressed satisfaction with the outcome: “It is another key milestone for the Northbrook vision and a valuable part of the overall masterplan at Ayrburn. We look forward to launching sales in the new year.”
Northbrook Arrowtown would be Winton Land’s fifth retirement village. Other projects are consented or rising in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, in Wanaka, at Launch Bay at Hobsonville Point, and Avon Loop in Christchurch.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
