Billionaire Peter Thiel’s proposal to set up a hostel in a remote part of New Zealand may be foiled, after council planners recommended rejecting the plans due to “unacceptable” negative impacts on the environment.
The development proposed by Thiel is located in Wanaka, near Queenstown – a remote alpine region of the South Island, famous for its seclusion and pristine natural beauty.
Second Star Ltd, a company owned by Thiel, has applied for approval for a sprawling lodge on its property, which will include a “pod” for Thiel himself, water areas and meditation areas.
The app described “a series of stand-alone buildings, including a hostel to accommodate visitors for up to 24 guests, an owner’s residence room, and associated inn management buildings, infrastructure, landscape treatment, water features and meditation space.” The earthworks required for its construction will cover more than 73,700 square meters of land.
Senior planner Sarah Gathercole was tasked with assessing the environmental and cultural impact of the proposal to the council and in a report of nearly 1,000 pages, recommended the council reject it.
“Negative effects of the activity on landscape quality, character, visual comfort, design, development density, cumulative effects and excavation would be unacceptable,” the Gathercole report said.
She said the proposed lodge was “on a scale far beyond what might reasonably be expected”.
While the proposal will have some positive effects, I think it does not constitute a positive [enough] Impact on the environment to offset or fully compensate for negative impacts.
Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and a Trump supporter, has sparked controversy due to his activities in New Zealand.
In 2017, it was revealed that he acquired New Zealand citizenship despite spending only 12 days in the country.
The usual route to citizenship requires applicants to have been in New Zealand as permanent residents for a minimum of 1,350 days in the five years prior to application, but the government has waived the requirement for Thiel based on his commercial and charitable activities.
At the time, Thiel was seen as part of a broader group of ultra-wealthy investors who hoped to purchase remote New Zealand real estate as a haven for potential social or environmental collapse.
He began facing opposition from New Zealand environmental groups and residents over his plans to build the lodge when designs were released for submission in late 2021.
Local resident John Sutton said in a request to the council that the lodge would “destroy our beautiful lake environment”.
The Upper Clutha Environmental Society said the site was “entirely within and surrounded by magnificent landscapes…landscapes of national importance” and opposed it, saying “the development is likely to cause significant negative physical changes in the landscape’s appearance when viewed from nearby public spaces.”
In its proposal, Second Star argues that the architects “designed a proposal to integrate the buildings into the undulating landscape that surrounds them” and that “the proposed lodge will create upscale accommodations in the area, with economic benefits reaching across the area and beyond.”
The Guardian has approached Second Star representatives for comment.
