Trail too close to home
A National MP is objecting to a cycle trail her own government backed financially, saying the proposed route will invade her privacy.
Former justice minister Amy Adams is concerned about the proposed route and lack of consultation for a walking and cycle trail along the western side of Lake Dunstan, in Central Otago.
The Canterbury MP owns a waterfront dwelling on Cornish Point, where the Kawarau River enters the lake. The trail is proposed to pass her property.
It forms part of a 530-kilometre continuous cycle trail network between Queenstown, Wanaka, Cromwell, Alexandra and Roxburgh first promised funding in in May 2016 by then-prime minister John Key.
In August, the new Government announced it would commit $13 million towards the $26m project, proposed by the Central Otago Queenstown Trail Network Trust.
Adams told commissioner Gary Rae at a hearing in Alexandra this week she did not oppose cycle trails, but was against one passing so close to her living area when a different route could be explored.
‘‘I would love to see it go ahead in what I think is a far better site for it. The views are better, the construction costs can only be cheaper because the road is quite well formed already, and it removes quite significant privacy impacts of a trail that will come
that close to the living areas of properties.’’
She believed building a lakeside trail was also not feasible without ‘‘massive recreation and reconstruction of the area’’ because of lack of space.
If the trail cut further back from the shore, behind a row of trees closer to the houses, there would be a significant impact on privacy, Adams said. ‘‘I am not aware of any significant cycle trail in New Zealand that runs as close to all the main living areas of residential properties as close to ours.’’
There had been no attempt to take into account the effect on the existing community, maps were misleading and might ‘‘misrepresent what might actually be built’’, and alternative alignments had not been properly considered, she said. Gallaway Cook Allan environmental and resource management lawyer Phil Page, acting for the trail trust, told the commissioner Adams was ‘‘plain wrong’’ on several points. The paper road suggested as an alternative route was an access road owned by the Department of Conservation that was not available. Other routes were ‘‘unhelpful’’ as the trust’s mandate under its funding arrangements was to build a cycle trail that followed the shore of Lake Dunstan, he said. The trail designer and engineer Tim Dennis had shown there was ‘‘more than enough adequate space’’ to build the track. Suggesting there was not another trail where houses were so close was wrong also, Page said.
There were a number of houses on the Clutha Gold Trail, which ran between the houses and the Clutha River downstream of Millers Flat.
The trust rejected criticism it had not communicated with the Cornish Point residents, Page said. ‘‘At no point had the Cornish Point community sought to make contact with [the trail designer], whose name has been all over the applicant’s documents for over a year now . . .,’’ Page said.
Furthermore, the trust was not obliged to consult because building a trail on that section of the lakeshore was a permitted activity.