Hearing on subdividing farm in Queenstown

Queenstown.

A Swiss woman living in Queenstown who was given Overseas Investment Office approval in 2016 to buy an $8million farm at West Wanaka is applying to subdivide it.

Apres Demain Ltd, owned by Hermine Yuki Mauvernay, is the applicant in a resource consent hearing that began yesterday in Wanaka, in front of commissioners Jan Caunter and Jane Sinclair.

The application involves Ms Mauvernay's 215ha Paddock Bay Farm, west of Glendhu Bay, beside Lake Wanaka.

She is seeking to establish two residential building platforms, with a new residential house on one platform and a flat and an altered relocated farm shed for staff accommodation on the other.

An existing worker's cottage would be removed.

The proposed subdivision would create a lot around an existing car parking area, with an easement allowing the public to walk from Buchanan Rise to the lake.

Neighbour John May is submitting against the proposal, due to concerns the buildings would be visible from his Emerald Bluffs properties.

He also pointed out that once the proposed district plan took legal effect in May, Ms Mauvernay could surrender the land-use consent for the houses she was seeking and build something different.

The hearing is due to finish today.