Resource consent for a Countdown supermarket on the site of the Bureta Park Motor Inn has been rejected.

In a decision released today, Commissioner David Hill declined the application due to the noncomplying land use activity, and traffic issues that will be created by the proposed 4,620m2 supermarket development.

An application for resource consent to create a supermarket on the Bureta Park Motor Inn site has been rejected.

The site is zoned residential, even though it has been home to the former Otumoetai Licensing Trust Hotel, now the Bureta Park Motor Inn, for about 40 years.

'We find that the activity is not appropriate for this site under the Tauranga City Plan as it is currently zoned,” says the commissioner's decision.

'The scheduled site clearly recognised an existing activity and cannot be, and should not be seen to be, simply rolled-over to another commercially-orientated use.”

Countdown owners Progressive Enterprises Limited was seeking resource consent to construct a Countdown supermarket, retail shops, liquor store and associated on-site parking on the site at the intersection of Vale Street and Bureta Road.

'That is not what PEL intends but is the effective consequence – an intensification of commercial use based on an existing, albeit under-utilised and constrained commercial activity,” states the commissioner in his ruling.

'Certainly redevelopment of the site would provide many of the benefits PEL claims for its proposal. However, at the end of the day this proposal will introduce a level and intensity of non-residential activity not seemingly anticipated in an urban residential zone.”

Traffic issues are also a big factor.

Former owner Perry Developments obtained resource consent in 2009 for a mixed residential commercial development at Bureta Park that planners say will generate 357 peak hour movements – compared with 546 peak hour movements, from half the area.

The fact the other half of the residentially zoned property is on the market was also mentioned as a factor.

'It would appear that the applicant proposes to take all of the benefit of the consented effects into the western half of the parent site leaving the future owner of the eastern site to take its chances.

'While such is undoubtedly legitimate practice in commercial terms, compressing the consented effects from a larger site into a smaller one would not appear to be comparing apples with apples as far as the Act is concerned.”

The commissioners also find the proposal to shift the The Mill liquor outlet to Vale Street not conducive to good planning and operations. In addition, the use of the building could have negative social effects with Council's pensioner housing directly opposite the site.

The law requires that before being eligible for consideration generally under section 104 of the RMA, an application for a non-complying activity must satisfy the decision maker either that its adverse effects will be minor, or that it will not be contrary to the objectives and policies of any relevant plan or proposed plan.

'In other words, the threshold for satisfaction is that we must be certain,” says commission chair David Hill.

Without understanding the demands that would be created from the development of the land to the east of the supermarket site, and the continued reliance on the use of Bureta Road as a primary servicing road for the developments, there is significant doubt about the capacity within the road network, the commissioners say.

The higher demands of a full site development on the Ngatai and Bureta intersection and to a lesser extent, the local roads feeding into Bureta/Vale intersection, would have a more than minor impact on network capacity and safety.

'We consider that to approve a supermarket on part of the site without a high degree of certainty as to the use of the eastern portion, where access is onto Vale Street only and hence capacity is even more limited than for the western part of the development, is not an appropriate outcome.

In the ordinary course of events effectively changing the zoning from residential to commercial would be undertaken by means of a Plan Change - requiring an associated careful traffic assessment of both the local and wider network effects. This has not been undertaken, so the magnitude of any such effects cannot, with confidence, be said to be minor.

The full result will be available, probably Monday on the Tauranga City council website:

http://www.tauranga.govt.nz/council-documents-reports/council-committee-meetings/council-committee-meeting-detail/tabid/1116/aid/24311/tctl/2380_ViewAnnouncement/Default.aspx