US billionaire Peter Thiel’s proposed luxury lodge has been turned down by independent commissioners who said it would be “inappropriately dominant” on his lakeside property. 

The tech entrepreneur sought consent for a series of buildings designed to sleep up to 30 people on his $13.5M Damper Bay site and, despite plans for extensive mitigative planting, commissioners say the lodge would be “plainly visible”. 

In the ruling released today (Thursday August 18) the commissioners said they were particularly concerned by the scale and continuous length of the “very dominating” one-to-two storey horizontal glazing in the lodge’s main building.

Thiel’s 193ha Damper Bay property, which he purchased in 2015 under the company Second Star Ltd, is in an Outstanding Natural Landscape (ONL) zoned area with views out to the Glendhu Bay Track and Lake Wānaka. 

Peter Thiel purchased the 193ha site in 2015 before revealing architectural plans for the proposed lodge late last year. PHOTO: Supplied

Architectural plans for the site made public late last year revealed an extravagant, multi-building retreat with multiple pools, libraries, spa facilities, and (until it was withdrawn by the applicants lawyers) a dedicated building for meditation.

The lodge would “significantly detract” from the qualities of the ONL and would be “visually obvious in a way that will be likely to draw the viewer’s eye and detract from the ONL,” commissioners ruled.

Their decision, made on behalf of Queenstown Lakes District Council, follows a recommendation by council planner Sarah Gathercole to refuse the proposal. 

The ONL-zoned site looks out to the Glendhu Bay Track and Lake Wānaka and the commissioners said the proposed lodge would “significantly detract” from the qualities of the ONL.

It comes three months after a two-day resource consent hearing where Thiel’s lawyers argued the lodge would provide ecological and economic benefits to the lakeside town. 

Commissioners Wendy Baker, Ian Munro and Glyn Lewers ruled that the positive effects “do not offset or counter-balance the scale or severity of the adverse ONL effects”. 

Upper Clutha Environmental Society president Julian Haworth spoke in opposition to the proposal at the May hearing.

Julian said he was “delighted” with the decision to refuse consent.