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Posted on Thursday March 4th at 8:46 a.m.
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Last year Porters announced expansion plans for the ski area that included New Zealand's first on-snow alpine village, and indicated it was negotiating with DoC to own the land needed for the small village.
Freehold land would enable conventional financing arrangements to proceed for building the village and expanding the ski area.
In considering any proposal to freehold land within the conservation estate, DoC must be satisfied there will be a net gain to the conservation estate. In return for acquiring the land for the proposed year-round alpine village, the Porters Project is gifting 15 hectares of land adjacent to the DoC-owned 12-hectare Lord's Bush Scenic Reserve near Kowai Bush, Springfield.
Lord's Bush and part of the gifted land contain the only high plains remnant of the Canterbury Plains' original lowland beech-podocarp hardwood forest cover. (Riccarton Bush in the City is the only low plains remnant).
The combined 27 hectares is sufficient area for a viable ecological restoration of the forest including bird and insect life.
The 21 hectares at Porters is part of 708 hectares leased from DoC on the perpetual ski lease where Porters has operated a commercial ski area since 1968. Some of the land being acquired is already used for staff accommodation and by the Porter Heights Ski Club.
In terms of the agreement Porters will undertake a ten-year ecological restoration programme of the 27 hectares under DoC's supervision that includes native tree planting, weed and pest control and fencing. In addition to providing the land to DoC Porters has agreed to undertake restoration work up to the value of $439,000 over the 10 years.
Porters' deputy operations manager, Scotty McKeown lives next to the reserve and will be closely involved in undertaking the restoration programme.
Separate from the agreement, Porters is to form a charitable trust to manage the restoration project and it's intended that skiers would contribute to the Trust's restoration work through their lift tickets.
Michael Sleigh of Christchurch, one of the people behind the Porters Ski Area will be a trustee. He has considerable experience in ecological restoration, being a former founding Trustee of the Otamahua/Quail Island Ecological Trust which has now seen over 40,000 native trees planted. He is also a former Trustee of the Te Waiau Mahika Kai Trust which owns and is undertaking an ecological restoration of traditional Maori food resources on a 445 hectare site in the Jericho Valley in Western Southland, In addition, Michael was Trustee of the Save the St James Theatre Trust which played a key role in saving from demolition the historic St James Theatre in Dunedin in the early 1990s.
Uli Dinsenbacher, the General Manager of Porters who lives only a few hundred metres from the site in Kowai Bush will also be a Trustee. He has a long standing interest in New Zealand's native forest and birdlife.
Porters also wishes to appoint other local members of the community to the Trust.
In 2007, Porters ski area was purchased by Christchurch and Sydney-based family interests. Since then the company has spent about $1.2 million upgrading facilities at the ski area which is the closest to Christchurch.
The company is currently finalising plans for the ski area's expansion with extensive snowmaking on main trails, modern ski lifts and facilities and providing direct access by ski lift to the ski area from carparks and the village. The ski area would be the first in New Zealand without an access road.
Porters is expecting to open public consultation on the expansion proposals within a few months, and be lodging applications for the necessary resource consents to Selwyn District Council and Environment Canterbury by the end of this year.
Both the expanded ski area and the year-round alpine village will be built to high standards of environmental security and sustainability. This includes an extensive beech forest regeneration project within and around the ski area.
For further info and video about the proposed Crystal Valley development click here.