Shania Twain's House Plans Rejected in New Zealand

[KiwiCoromandel]

Shania Twain's New Zealand house plans have been rejected by the Queenstown's Lakes Council's regulatory contractor.

Civic Corp planner Andrew Henderson says the proposed house for the American singer would not fit in with the natural landscape.

He says it would break the line of an existing ridge, and intrude on a currently unaltered view. Mr Henderson says a better location could be found.

The singer bought Motatapu and Soho stations - a total of nearly 25,000 hectares - for more than $21 million last year.

She had planned to build a diamond-shaped house from schist stone and cedar wood.

The resource consent hearing on the application is to be heard next week.

source:Reuters

[Wolfie]

Shania can fit in my landscape any time. ;)

[Jim Colyer]

Mine too!

[KiwiCoromandel]

Singer's home not in harmony

Shania Twain

18.05.05

Canadian singer Shania Twain's proposed home design for Motatapu Station, near Wanaka, has received the thumbs down because it is not in harmony with the landscape.

Although the nearest public vantage point is 2km away, Queenstown Lakes District Council regulatory authority CivicCorp said the 8m-high building would break the natural line of a terrace and a more suitable location could be found.

Any plantings that would screen the house from sight would detract from the existing visual amenity of an open and natural valley, said consultant planner Andrew Henderson.

Independent commissioner Trevor Shiels is scheduled to hear the application at Edgewater Resort, Wanaka, next week.

Twain, also known as Eileen Lange, and her husband, Robert "Mutt" Lange, have applied through their company Soho Properties to build a house with attached garage, two guest cottages and ancillary structures.

They bought 24,731ha of Crown pastoral leasehold farm land between Wanaka and Arrowtown for about $21.4 million last year. They want to build a diamond-shaped residential complex on top of a ridge on the southern side of a knoll in the Motatapu Valley, about 1.4km from the existing homestead.

The couple also sought consent to build a smaller worker's house on a terrace about 200m west of the end of Motatapu Valley Rd.

Mr Henderson said Twain's proposed dwelling "is not considered to be in harmony with the line and form of the landscape". Consent should be declined unless further evidence was presented at the hearing, he said.

In a separate report, Mr Henderson said the worker's house did not intrude on the landscape and was on a site that was not readily visible from public and private areas.

source- NZPA

[KiwiCoromandel]

Planner says no to Shania's latest design......

Amended plans to make Canadian superstar singer Shania Twain’s proposed house in Central Otago harder to see have failed to sway a local planner.

Andrew Henderson, planner for CivicCorp, the regulatory agent for Queenstown Lakes District Council, has stuck to his guns and recommended to independent commissioner Trevor Shiels the development should be declined.

The house on the singer’s Motatapu Station would be too prominent and have more than minor environmental effects, Mr Henderson said.

Last month he said the original plans were "not in harmony with the landscape".

The main issues at the hearing were visibility from public sites and landscape classification.

Mr Shiels has reserved his decision, but given the parties two more days to present submissions.

While advisers say Motatapu Rd is the only public site from which the house can be seen, Upper Clutha Environmental Society disagrees.

The proposed changes should mean just 2.9m of the approximately 7m high house would be visible, but would need 6000 cu m of earthworks instead of just under 4000 cu m as originally planned.

Lawyer Michael Parker said farming and conservation work undertaken by Twain and her husband showed an ethic of stewardship and sustainable production. A house would be expected in a rural farming environment.

However, society president Julian Haworth backed Mr Henderson’s assessment. Man-made mounds were not appropriate, he said.

Mr Haworth said it was hard to assess potential future effects because more public areas might be created from which the house would be visible.

source:NZPA