Te Runanga o Ngati Awa, Lysaght Developments, and the Whakatane District Council will meet in the High Court next week over a Mobil petrol station proposed for opposite The Hub. Photo / Charlotte Jones
Te Runanga o Ngati Awa, Lysaght Developments, and the Whakatane District Council will meet in the High Court next week over a Mobil petrol station proposed for opposite The Hub. Photo / Charlotte Jones
Four months after it battled two resource consents in the High Court at Rotorua, Ngāti Awa is returning to oppose plans for a petrol station on the outskirts of Whakatāne.
Te Runanga o Ngati Awa and Lysaght Developments have each sought a judicial review of Whakatane District Council's decision in April to grant consent for an unmanned Mobil petrol station opposite The Hub.
The Ngāti Awa case centres around ownership of a private roadway while Lysaght Developments' opposition relates to a condition of the consent that prevents a right-hand turn into the site from the state highway.
Access to the petrol station site is via a private road, part owned by Ngāti Awa landowners.
The private roadway provides access to the Lysaght Developments offices on the left and the proposed petrol station on the right, the site of which is currently a paddock. It is also access for residential homes at the base of the cul-de-sac.
Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa chief executive Leonie Simpson said the Ngāti Awa owners of the private roadway were not notified of the application and therefore any effects on them were not considered in the decision-making process.
Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa is representing these landowners at the High Court.
She said the runanga believed the council failed to undertake a proper and agreed process and failed to consider the effects of the proposal on the Ngāti Awa landowners.
This private roadway will form the basis of Te Runanga o Ngati Awa's opposition to a resource consent granted to construct a petrol station on the adjacent paddock. Photo / Charlotte Jones
However, the issue of whether other owners of the roadway need to provide consent as a landowner is not an environmental effect that can be considered under the Resource Management Act.
The development of the petrol station is a permitted activity under the district plan, but a resource consent was required because of the slightly tighter turning circle for trucks entering the site and for an oversized sign.
A condition of the consent requires a median strip to be installed along the centre of the state highway, preventing a right-hand turn into the site. This was a requirement of the NZ Transport Agency.
Lysaght Developments believe this requirement is unnecessary and increases the time needed to reach its offices by being forced to travel to the Gateway and Phoenix drives roundabout and back around.
The High Court hearing is scheduled for next week.
It comes four months after the High Court heard Ngāti Awa's case against the granting of consents by Whakatane District Council and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council for an expanded water bottling plant at Otakiri Springs.
The runanga is still waiting on the outcome of this case.
What is proposed on the site?
The developer behind the Mobil station is Auckland man Pranav Gulati of Gulati Enterprises. Gulati owns several other Mobil stations.
The resource consent outlines plans for four light vehicle fuel pumps and one truck fuel pump, two 60,000 litre petrol and diesel storage tanks, an IT services shed and a new service access to the state highway.
The pumps will service up to eight light vehicles and four trucks at a time.
There will be no shop, no mechanical workshops, no car wash, no vacuum or air hose. The service station will operate on a pay at pump basis and will be unmanned.
The resource consent proposes that vehicles access the service station via the small private accessway off the state highway and vehicles will then re-enter the state highway via a left turn only directly off the site.
Developers have said they will install a kerbed median to prevent any right turns here. No on-site parking will be provided.
The application notes the land is currently zoned as light industrial and states that a service station is a permitted activity under the district plan.
Despite backing onto a residential home, the application states that the proposed service station will have a "less than minor" effect and so limited notification is precluded.
