Peter Thiel's proposed luxury lodge in Wanaka failed to win over planners. Photo / Queenstown Lakes District Council, File
Peter Thiel's proposed luxury lodge in Wanaka failed to win over planners. Photo / Queenstown Lakes District Council, File
An American billionaire's mega house in Wanaka has been given the thumbs down by Queenstown Lakes District Council planners.
Meanwhile, the planners recommended a $20 million subterranean-style home nearby be given the green light.
Both developments are multimillion-dollar, bunker-style ventures on rural land west of Wanaka. Hearings on applications for resource consent are scheduled later this month.
US tech businessman Peter Thiel and partner Matt Danzeisen's application for resource consent for the home and accommodation at Damper Bay is being recommended for rejection "predominantly due to adverse landscape outcomes", a report to the hearing commissioners from the council senior planner Sarah Gathercole says.
Peter Thiel offering dollar bills to attendees during an address at a Bitcoin Conference on April 7, 2022, in Miami Beach. Photo / Rebecca Blackwell, AP
The proposal is for a 330m-long, grass-roofed complex, comprising 10 guest accommodation units with a basement floor level of 1165sq m, a private "owner's pod" with a floor area of 565sq m, a 40sq m meditation building, and other lodge management buildings.
Gathercole said the development would be visible from key locations and was of a scale well in excess of what could be reasonably anticipated in the rural zone and outstanding natural landscape.
"Whilst some positive effects will result from the proposal, I consider it does not constitute a positive effect on the environment to entirely offset or compensate for the adverse effects on the environment that will or may result from allowing the activity."
The site legally described as 492 Wanaka-Mount Aspiring Rd, Wanaka. Photo / Queenstown Lakes District Council, File
Down the road, the Nature Preservation Trust's 2006sq m proposal, "The Sanctuary", would be 68 per cent underground with five cave "portals".
The house would have six bedrooms, two kitchens, multiple lounges, a gym, and a library.
The owner also wanted a 449sq m implement shed and would plant 4000 trees.
Council planner Erica Walker recommended consent be granted, subject to conditions.
Because much of it would be underground, it would require 41,600cu m of earthworks over 1.75ha. Before construction, the trust would have to demolish a 650sq m mansion.
Several neighbours opposed it because of the extensive earthworks, noise, dust, visual amenity, and the two-and-a-half-year construction phase.
Walker agreed there would be adverse temporary visual effects that could not be mitigated and would be more than minor.
Five years after completion, established vegetation would reduce visual effects "to an adequate level", she said.
The trust's sole trustee is Wanaka lawyer Janice Hughes, who said she could not release her client's name.
Commissioners will hear Nature Preservation Trust's application on May 11 and Second Star Ltd's application on May 23.
The Upper Clutha Environmental Society will give evidence against both applications.
