Countdown to store opening
A proposed Countdown supermarket at Richmond, near Nelson, could open its doors to the first shoppers in late 2019.
Supermarket company Progressive Enterprises Ltd is behind the proposed store, earmarked for a site on the corner of Salisbury and Champion roads at the northern entrance to Richmond.
The company’s national development manager, Matthew Grainger, on Monday told the Tasman regional transport committee that Progressive Enterprises did not yet have a detailed programme for the proposed store ‘‘but all going well, there’d be no reason why we couldn’t open it by the end of 2019’’.
In June, Tasman District Council approved a private plan change request from Progressive to rezone about 1.3ha of land at the site from residential to commercial, paving the way for the development.
Grainger told the transport committee that Progressive had applied for a resource consent to build the supermarket and was ‘‘expecting approval soon’’.
As part of the plan change process, traffic experts for different parties agreed the roundabout at the busy intersection of Salisbury and Champion roads was at or near its capacity and needed to be upgraded ‘‘as soon as possible, regardless of the supermarket proposal’’.
Progressive had proposed a design for the upgrade, which had been accepted as suitable by all traffic experts involved with the plan change. The company was in discussions with council staff ‘‘regarding an offer of land and money for works to upgrade the roundabout’’.
The roundabout project is scheduled for 2021-22 in the draft Tasman Regional Land Transport Plan along with a proposed pedestrian and cycle underpass below Champion Rd.
Grainger suggested the proposals be split with funding for the roundabout upgrade made available earlier, in 2018-19.
However, some members of the committee did not appear to be keen on splitting up the roundabout and underpass projects.
Cr Kit Maling said ‘‘the supermarket can wait ... because I don’t want to see somebody killed because we’re upgrading something and doing it piecemeal just to please a supermarket’’.
The Tasman Regional Land Transport Plan, which is used to bid for National Land Transport Funding funding, is reviewed every three years. Submissions opened on January 19 for the draft plan, which includes the proposed roundabout upgrade. The draft plan drew 95 submissions and 21 submitters asked to speak at the hearing, held on Monday.
On May 9, the committee is due to deliberate on the submissions and recommend the final plan to the full council for its approval on May 24.