Countdown to court ruling

BY DELWYN DICKEY

The decision on whether to approve Progressive Enterprises' resource consent to build a Countdown supermarket in central Warkworth will be made by the Environment Court, not the Rodney District Council.

Referring a resource consent application directly to the Environment Court is possible now under recent changes designed to simplify and streamline the Resource Management Act.

The supermarket giant wants to build the 13,000-square-metre supermarket, five specialty shops and the 154 mostly underground carparks on land it owns between Neville St and Mill Lane.

Progressive requested the council, after public notification of the application, allow the Environment Court to decide the outcome. The council agreed at a meeting on November 5.

In the past, the council would have made a decision through the consent process which could then be challenged in the Environment Court by parties dissatisfied with the result.

Bypassing the council process, when any decision it made would have almost certainly have been challenged, is designed to save duplication, time and money.

The public now has 20 working days from last Thursday to lodge a submission with the council regarding the resource consent application for the Countdown supermarket.

The council then has 20 working days from the closing date for submissions to prepare a report for the Environment Court.

Progressive must lodge a notice of their requirements with the court within 10 days of receiving a copy of the report.

"Each request for direct referral to the Environment Court will be treated on its merits, as there are no criteria contained within the RMA to assess requests," says council resource consent manager Ian Dobson.

The direct referral process only applies to applications which are notified.

Should the council decline the direct referral process, it must give reasons in writing and the applicant has the right to object.

An applicant can request direct referral to the court at any time from the lodgement of the application and up to five days after the period for submission has closed.

"The applicant can review the nature of the submissions and then make a decision regarding referral," says Mr Dobson.

- A hearing by independent commissioners regarding a separate application by Progressive to remove a rimu and a jacaranda tree from the site of its proposed supermarket started at 9am yesterday at the Rodney District Council offices in Orewa.

Plan allows a big footprint

Progressive's bid to build a supermarket in the central business district became more achievable after independent commissioners appointed by the Rodney District Council allowed an alteration to plan variation 125 of the Warkworth Structure Plan.

The original structure plan had this type of large footprint development designated to an area off Woodcocks Rd, west of Warkworth, but the commissioners recommended an alteration to the plan change to allow some large format stores in the central business district on land predominantly owned by Progressive.

A large shopping complex of about 30 shops in the original approved Woodcocks Rd area, including a supermarket, is under way but its future is in doubt if the alteration to the plan variation is upheld by the Environment Court, says developer Perrendale Holdings.

"Other national businesses want the development anchored by a supermarket but the Warkworth area cannot support three supermarkets for some time," says director Neil Barr.

Perrendale has lodged an appeal in the Environment Court.

Progressive's competitor Foodstuffs has also appealed the decision.

Its New World supermarket now falls within an area where large format activities will not be allowed, although it has special dispensation to operate.

"The plan changes specifically recognise New World as a permitted activity within Warkworth," says Foodstuffs general manager of property strategy Angela Bull.

"On the advice of our experts we have appealed some aspects of the council's plan changes to clarify and correct some provisions that relate primarily to our site."

Progressive is appealing parts of the council variation plan. No date has been set for the Environment Court hearing.

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