Subdivisions stalk lake edges

The quintessential images of the South Island, such as this view of Lake Tekapo, may not last much longer if developers get hold of the land. Photo / Supplied

For rich northerners and foreigners, visions of a lakeside spread steeped in Southern Man landscapes may again be stirring.

And some southern men - the former stewards of this iconic terrain and our merino fine wool industry - may dream of sitting back in comfort, sipping pinot noir as lifestyle blocks and vineyards replace the tussock.

For farmers and property developers, the cold conservationist wind which blew through the South Island high country under the Labour-led Government has swung 180 degrees and turned into a warm zephyr.

National last week reversed a two-year-old policy introduced by Labour which grew out of concerns about the transformation of the high country and targeted the creep of housing around pristine southern lakes.

The Government says district plans can safeguard the high country but the very reason Labour introduced the restrictive policy was because district plans were not.

The policy changes apply to tenure review - a process where Crown pastoral leaseholders can gain freehold title over parts of their leases if they return other parts with high conservation values to the Crown.

The new Government says it is no longer keen to add large tracts of land to the conservation estate. It says covenants on titles can protect valuable ecological or heritage features which are freeholded in tenure deals.

National has also decided applications to privatise pastoral leases need no longer go before the Minister of Land Information at an early stage. Officials (often contractors) will be trusted to take negotiations to an advanced stage - an arrangement former Minister David Parker found wanting.

The pastoral leases cover nearly two million hectares of the South Island. The huge sheep stations with names like Glenfalloch, Loch Linnhe, Balmoral and Ben Lomond evoke images of craggy mountains, hardy farmers, pristine lakes and tussock grasses and form an essential backdrop to the 100 per cent Pure marketing of New Zealand to tourists.

It's a landscape northerners like to think of as unchanging (a myth reinforced by those tourism and Speights ads). But those who visit for the skiing or walking tracks don't have to look far to witness change - the growth around Queenstown and Wanaka, more intensive farming in the Mackenzie basin, vineyards in central Otago.

Tenure review's contribution to this process is still unfolding but the potential is vast: since 1999 nearly 200,000 ha of the high country has been privatised and about 180,000 ha added to conservation estate.

The chance to escape restrictive leases and diversify has proved highly popular with lessees facing diminishing returns from sheep farming: of 303 leases in 1999, 161 had completed or entered negotiations by August last year.

Opposition grew as evidence mounted that leaseholder farmers were doing rather better out of the exchange than the Crown - often being paid to "retire" conservation land then promptly selling off freeholded land for subdivision. Early examples included Hillend Station, south of Wanaka. The new owner sold 2665ha to Infinity Group, which gained resource consent to build 53 houses on 120 ha. At nearby Glendhu, the new owner plans a golf course on the lakeshore with 200 villas.

Conservationists also railed that while DoC was securing large tracts of vulnerable land in remote alpine areas for a network of parks, ecologically valuable land in low altitude areas was falling prey to land use change. Landscape and heritage features were also under threat.

Parker's rule change affected about 65 stations with land within 5km of lakesides, 34 of which had entered tenure review talks.

Twenty have since re-launched negotiations, having agreed that lakeside land will not be developed. In some cases, covenants will be attached to titles to safeguard significant features. The lakes include Wakatipu, Wanaka, Hawea, Pukaki, Tekapo, Benmore, Ohau and Heron.

Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell wonders why policy changes are needed if most farmers were willing to accept the restrictions.

"District plans have been shown up time and time again - that's why Labour introduced this. For the new Government to say they will do something if the plans are found to be wanting - it will be too late and district plans take years to change."

Hackwell fears the new policy will mean "open slather" for lakeside subdivision.

Lincoln University lecturer Ann Brower, whose research exposed tenure review deals which heavily favoured some lessees, says privatised leases are undergoing significant change.

"At least 30 landowners have subdivided and sold new parcels; more have subdivided, but have not yet sold any parcels. Others have sold land to vineyard developers, ski field developers, and tyre testing centres."

Brower says a landscape once characterised by large blocks is being transformed. Eighty pastoral leases with a mean size of 5938 ha has become 865 parcels with a mean size of 334 ha, she says.

"There are at least 550 lifestyle block parcels of less than 50 hectares on former leasehold land. There are still some large parcels likely to be used for extensive sheep grazing but they are not the dominant features of the landscape."

Jonathan Wallis, chairman of the High Country Accord which represents lessees, not surprisingly sees things rather differently.

"I'm not aware of any inappropriate or unsustainable development on lakeside properties and tenure review's been going on for a long, long time."

Wallis, 32, co-owns and manages Minaret Station, a 20,000 ha spread on the western shores of Lake Wanaka reachable only by boat.

The family farm is not in review negotiations but Wallis won't rule it out in future. Since buying the lease in 1995, the property has been built up to stock 22,000 deer, beef cattle and sheep.

"Everyone wants this land protected from inappropriate development but it's for a district plan to decide which is genuinely inappropriate or not."

He says the Queenstown Lakes District Council, which covers several of the lakes in question, has introduced stringent planning rules covering lakeside development.

"The majority of lakeside pastoral leases are classified as an outstanding natural landscape - you can't dig a longdrop on an outstanding landscape without it being publicly notifiable.

"I know that under the district plan I won't be able to subdivide."

Wallis believes the new approach will lead to more subtle outcomes than those seen so far, where what farmers call the back country has been retired - meaning they lose summer grazing strips and intensify on the lower slopes. "That's when you start to get lines on the hills - distinct conservation land above 3000 ft and features going in silly places below it."

Covenants have been criticised as too weak and open to abuse but Wallis says they can be very effective.

"The advantage of the new system is that a change of ownership rights may not necessarily occur to such an extent and the Crown may not have to pay out. In fact, it may go the other way and the lessees may have to pay the Crown [to freehold]."

But Forest and Bird's southern regional officer, Sue Maturin, says the Government has not done its homework. Freeholded leases in central Otago, for instance, are specifically exempt from subdivision, vegetation clearance and landscape rules.

The Waitaki District Council proposes similar exemptions with farmers' support. The Mackenzie District Council's efforts to strengthen protection for some of our best-known landscapes have encountered fierce farmer opposition.

"The new policy direction is likely to privatise much more land, with much worse outcomes for biodiversity and the landscapes that underpin our tourism."

Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson, whose office has responsibility for tenure negotiations, refused to explain the Government's thinking - referring the Weekend Herald to the press release which accompanied the announcement.

But Agriculture Minister David Carter, a strident critic of Labour's approach to tenure review, says little residential development has stemmed from the process - though he acknowledges land use changes away from pastoral farming.

"The argument that lakesides have been carved up and developed into condominiums is just not so," says Carter.

"There were early deals which in hindsight look to be a good deal [for the lessee] but bear in mind the dramatic increase in rural land values in the last 10 years."

Carter does not accept the policy changes again expose lakeside land to inadequate council planning controls but admits councils did not anticipate the need for rule changes to cover freeholded leases. "That's why we are saying there will be areas we should covenant for a longer period and allow local government time to catch up."

And councils are catching up. The Mackenzie District Council will today release Plan Change 13 for public comment, which ushers in additional controls on subdivision in the Mackenzie basin.

The proposed change also makes lakeside subdivision a non-complying land use - meaning applicants will have to jump through hoops to succeed. Central Otago District Council is reviewing its landscape protection rules.

Though the Government no longer plans to expand the conservation estate, Carter says it still has an incentive to complete tenure negotiations.

"What drives me is to make sure we leave that land in the best possible hands, to be looked after sustainably for the future."

One through the loophole

If the Government wants us to accept that covenants and the Reserve Management Act can protect high country environments, then the battle to save the Nevis Valley trout fishery is most inconvenient.

Just how two Crown pastoral leases ended up in the hands of a hydro electricity generator is not important. What matters, says Otago Fish and Game's Niall Watson, is that covenants proposed by DoC to protect this outstanding landscape are powerless to stop 200 ha of river flats being dammed and flooded.

The pastoral leases in question are Ben Nevis and Craigroy, southeast of Queenstown. Leaseholder Pioneer Generation has entered tenure review negotiations and preliminary proposals due to go out for public comment would give Pioneer freehold to 7891 ha while the Crown retains 11,118 ha of higher altitude land for conservation. The Crown would also pay Pioneer $3 million in three "equalisation" payments.

Pioneer, owned by the Central Lakes Trust, runs 12 small hydro schemes in central Otago and Southland.

Watson says gaining freehold title is a prelude to the company's bid for resource consent for a 40 megawatt hydro station. DoC has proposed conservation covenants to protect landscape values but revealed at a water conservation order hearing that the covenants would move aside in the event of hydro development.

He says the area likely to be lost under hydro lakes is the most important for trout fishing and historical values, including the old Nevis goldfield which has national heritage significance.

The brown trout fishery lures fly fishers from New Zealand and overseas for the clear waters, spectacular setting and the size of the fish. The valley's grade 5 gorges are popular with kayakers and the river has a distinct native fish species, Smeagol galaxias, which is nationally vulnerable.

In a letter explaining DoC's position, DoC Otago conservator Jeff Connell says the tenure review proposals protect a substantial area which is high in biodiversity values, add to a future conservation parks network, secure public recreation opportunities and protect historic heritage.

The letter says DoC believes it should honour an agreement with Pioneer's predecessor, Central Electric, in which the company supported a conservation order on the Kawarau River (which the Nevis flows into) in return for DoC allowing an exception for the Nevis hydro proposal.