Proposed Queenstown apartments will be tallest buildings in town 'by far'

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from Otago News

A proposed billion-dollar development will smash Queenstown’s height limits with five buildings about double the permitted levels.

The tallest building in the Taumata/Lakeview project will be a 13-storey, 51.3-metre accommodation block on a site with a 26m height limit.

Details of the proposal have been revealed in an application for the first stage of development.

The public is excluded from the decision process as it is being considered under the Government’s fast-tracking legislation.

Queenstown Lakes District Councillor Penny Clark was shocked at the height of the proposed buildings, which would be set against the Ben Lomond hill.

“It didn’t look like 13 stories in the pictures,” she said.

They would be the tallest buildings in Queenstown “by far”, although some existing hotels were about nine stories because they had been built into excavated hillsides.

Clark was supportive of the overall Lakeview/Taumata development as it would contribute to the revitalisation of the central town and was not concerned that the public would have no input. Continue reading here.