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A major film and television production hub planned for Queenstown’s Wakatipu Basin has been approved under the Government’s fast-track regime, despite acknowledged environmental and planning concerns.
The proposed Ayrburn Screen Hub, a large-scale studio and accommodation complex near Arrowtown, will proceed after an expert panel concluded its regional economic benefitsoutweigh its adverse effects.
Issued on March 14, the decision grants resource consents to developer Waterfall Park Developments for a project featuring film studios, offices and 201 accommodation units on former farmland at Ayrburn.
The Ayrburn Screen Hub would include two sound stages and production facilities on a 26ha site near Speargrass Flat. Image / Supplied
The panel found the development would deliver “significant regional economic benefits”, even though it acknowledged uncertainty about the scale of those gains.
“While there is considerable uncertainty regarding the extent of regional benefits… the combination of the construction and operation of the screen hub would have significant regional economic benefits,” the panel wrote.
At the same time, it rejected claims of broader national impact, stating: “The evidence before the expert hearing panel does not support a finding that the screen hub would have national benefits.”
Environmental effects were a central issue in the case, particularly the project’s impact on the landscape of the Wakatipu Basin.
The panel accepted those effects would be noticeable but ultimately not severe.
“Adverse landscape effects of the screen hub would be more than minor, but not significant, and reducing over time.”
The application includes detailed site layouts and earthworks plans. Image / Supplied
It found other impacts, including traffic, noise and ecological effects, would be “less than minor” and could be managed through conditions.
The proposal also includes measures aimed at improving water quality in Mill Creek and Lake Hayes, which the panel said would generate “significant regional benefits”.
However, it acknowledged the development runs counter to parts of the Proposed Queenstown Lakes District Plan, particularly provisions aimed at limiting development in rural areas and protecting landscape values.
In a key finding, the panel said the project would likely have been declined under the Resource Management Act.
“This combination of findings would have led the expert hearing panel to decline the land use consent application… had that application been made under the Resource Management Act 1991.”
Instead, the outcome was determined by the Fast-track Approvals Act, which sets a higher bar for refusing projects.
Under that legislation, consent can only be declined if adverse effects are so significant they outweigh the benefits.
The panel said that threshold had not been met.
“The only permissible decision the expert hearing panel can make is to grant the application.”
The approved development includes two large film studios built into a hillside, along with workshops, production facilities and accommodation spread across multiple buildings.
The site sits near Mill Creek, a key tributary of Lake Hayes, and borders rural residential properties and Millbrook Resort.
The land has been the subject of multiple unsuccessful development proposals over the past decade, including housing and retirement village plans.
While opposition from neighbours and planning conflicts were raised during the process, the panel said those factors could not override the statutory framework it was required to apply.
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.
