Plan for supermarket but no consent

A Havelock Rd section purchased by Countdown for a planned supermarket. Photo / Glenn Taylor

A Countdown developer has told Havelock Rd residents he is confident a planned supermarket will go ahead, despite no application for resource consent.

Havelock Rd's Lulu & Max cafe owner Tessa Flowers-Morrell said Progressive Enterprises property developer Neil Berryman spoke to a gathering of about 80 residents last week, saying he was "very confident" the supermarket would be completed by 2017.

Mr Berryman was Australian developer Charter Hall's New Zealand manager when it developed Hastings' Nelson Park site in 2010.

Countdown last month confirmed it had purchased two sections on Havelock Rd, and said the finished project would create up to 120 jobs.

The sections include the land on which Lulu & Max cafe is located, and a grassy lot beside the cafe which extends back to Parkvale School. The land is zoned as plains, or protected horticultural land.

There has since been an outcry from residents who are concerned about possible traffic issues on the arterial road, which serves as a thoroughfare between Hastings and Havelock North.

Hastings resident and Shanley & Co surveyor Colin Shanley, who also attended last week's meeting, said the supermarket "would create congestion on Havelock Rd that can't be acceptable".

"It's at a peak now, and it will be a hugely congested area should a supermarket entry be put in."

A Hastings District Council spokesman said the council had not received a resource consent application for the supermarket.

He said the sites were located within a 12.6ha block of land between Havelock Rd and Howard St, which had been identified in the Heretaunga Plains Urban Development Strategy (HPUDS ) for re-zoning to residential during the period from 2015 to 2045.

"There is no definite date proposed for the rezoning of the Howard St block at this stage other than to say that it isn't planned for the next 10 year period."

However, a private plan change could be lodged to rezone the land or council could initiate a plan to change the current order of the HPUDS rezonings.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule said he did not think there was "anything untoward about the fact there hasn't been [a resource consent application] lodged yet".

It would be "very difficult" for Countdown to obtain resource consent while the land was zoned plains, but when the land was re-zoned, the Australia-owned chain was likely to argue the planned supermarket would service the influx in residents.

A Countdown spokesperson said: "The proposed supermarket is of course subject to a resource consent, and we haven't lodged an application yet. We had some valuable feedback from the meeting with local residents last week but it really is too early to comment in any further detail at this stage."

Ms Flowers-Morrell said she aimed to stay positive whether or not the supermarket went ahead.