Tailor-made trouble in suburbia
Christchurch tailor Mark van Roosmalen says he’s just trying to make a living after losing his business in the Canterbury earthquakes.
But his new neighbours in the Christchurch suburb of Ilam say there’s no place for commercial businesses in residential streets.
‘‘I can’t see what the big drama is,’’ van Roosmalen said.
‘‘It was like I was lowering the tone of the place, I’m a bespoke tailor for Christ’s sake.’’
Van Roosmalen has faced push back from a local residents’ group which opposes his small business operating out of his Ilam property.
The Hamilton Ave and Otara St Residents’ Association raised concerns about the business at a local community board meeting earlier this month, and it is ‘‘frustrated’’ the Christchurch City Council will allow it to continue.
‘‘It’s not so much the tailor we’re upset with, it’s the principle of having a commercial activity in a residential zone,’’ association chairman Doug Archbold said.
‘‘It’s similar to the [proposed] funeral parlour in Rochdale St. A commercial operation has no place in a residential street. It’s not complicated.’’
Van Roosmalen has been running his business out of his sister’s Otara St home where he lives, opposite Fendalton Mall, for nearly two years.
Losing his Manchester St store of 23 years in the February 2011 earthquake was ’’pretty devastating’’, he said. He moved the business into his mother’s garage on Memorial Ave and, after she died, he moved it to Otara Ave.
The operation was permitted under the Christchurch City Council’s special temporary accommodation permit following the earthquakes. The permit allowed displaced businesses to run out of residential properties.
Van Roosmalen’s permit was issued in October 2015 and will expire in June 2021.