Skaters in council plans

A new skateboard park and more money in the council’s pocket are among the perks Foodstuffs is offering to gain approval for its proposed Whitby New World supermarket.

Porirua City Council provisionally granted Foodstuffs a licence to share Adventure Park’s carpark at a meeting last Thursday.

The decision will be finalised at a council meeting tomorrow. The recommendation received unanimous support at committee level.

Since 2010 Foodstuffs has been planning to build a new 3000 square-metre supermarket to the east of Discovery Drive.

It would be three-times the size of the current New World on the other side of the road at the Whitby mall, which is 35 years old, too small and not meeting community demands, said council resource management consultant Jason HarveyWills in a report to councillors.

The new supermarket, which is expected to be built by 2014, will border Adventure Park and has been given approval to share the park’s public carpark in addition to building its own carparking spaces. Sharing the carpark will not compromise Adventure Park users, and will generate income for council through Foodstuff’s rent of the space, Mr Harvey-wills said in his report. The rent has not yet been set. The public will be able to park in the shared carpark with no time limit or activity restrictions from Foodstuffs, who will assume responsibility for the redevelopment, maintenance and operation of the whole carpark. This will save the council money, Mr Harvey-wills reported.

The skate park, which borders the space for the shared carpark, will either be relocated or redeveloped when the supermarket is built.

Either way, Foodstuffs will meet the cost, and the council could negotiate with Foodstuffs to maintain the skate park if it remains in its current location, Mr Harvey-wills said.

Demolishing the existing skate park and building a new one north of Whitby Bowling Club is the council’s preferred option, Mr Harvey-wills said.

The current skate park location has caused concern among police, the residents’ association and local clubs because of late night vandalism and loitering. However, since the new supermarket will be right next to the existing skate park, loitering would be less of a problem when it is built, he said.

If councillors approve Foodstuffs’ plan on Wednesday, Foodstuffs will apply for resource consent in about two months and its proposal will be put to the public for feedback.

The Department of Conservation will review the plan at the same time.