Gibbston Valley Wines 900 house development Fast Track application.
The purpose of this article is to seek your support and feedback regarding FOGCZ pushing back against Gibbston Valley Wines 900 house development Fast Track application.
This week, Gibbston residents reinvigorated the group, Friends Of Gibbston Character Zone ( FOGCZ).
FOGCZ's objective has always been to help preserve the Gibbston Character Zone; added to this is protection of the Kawarau Gibbston Dark Sky Park.
As such, FOGCZ's immediate focus will be opposing GVW's Fast Track application which proposes 900 homes and a primary school at the Gibbston Valley Resort.
This application threatens our Dark Sky Park - it is highly likely the amount of added light will take away our Dark Sky status, and change the nature of the valley forever. This is despite GVW saying they will take the Dark Sky Park into account; there’s just too much incident light from a town of 3000 people to keep the sky dark.
41 residents directly supported our Dark Sky application, critical to us receiving Dark Sky Park status. FOGCZ needs this same support to protect the Park and more, if that’s what the community wants.
The Fast Track mechanism seeks limited input from a very restricted group of organisations and only from individuals who live next door to the development - if you don’t live next door to Gibbston Valley Resort, you can’t comment and the Gibbston Community Association will not be able to comment i.e. the Gibbston community will not be able to express any concerns to the government appointees approving this development.
The Fast Track mechanism overrides all existing environmental protections and District Planning – there is no surety anyone will look at the impact on our streams and the Kawarau River from 900 new homes taking water and producing sewage. QLDC may be required to provide water and sewage infrastructure, even though the Council has run out of money…that’s your rates bills going up so Gibbston Valley Wines can make money.
There will be no requirement to consider congestion on our roads as a result of the new development. That’s your commute taking longer because there are hundreds more cars on the same roads.
Gibbston Valley Wines has not consulted residents in the Fast Track process and is clear they do not intend to undertake any consultation. They have no real interest in protecting or enhancing the Gibbston community.
FOGCZ want to hear what you think.
If you support FOGCZ’s action, please send us a sentence to fogczgroup@gmail.com e.g. I oppose the GVR Fast Track proposal because it pays no attention to the impacts of the development of the environment or the existing local community.
If you disagree with our action, please tell us about this too.
If you do not wish to receive further news from FOGCZ, please unsubscribe.
We will be sending out a Press Release this week and we would like it to go as far as possible. We want to be heard.
If you can suggest media contacts, we would love to hear about them.
If you can suggest other people or groups to whom we should send our Press Release to, please let us know.
The Fast Track Bill will likely become law by 18 November, less than a month away! The list of applications that go into the Bill, in which GVW is currently included, will then go ahead with minimal room for alteration. There is not much time to persuade government the GVW application should be dropped out.
The Malaghans Protection Society have already pushed back significantly against a similar proposal for a village on Coronet Station Road.
We can do it too, with your strong support and help.
