Zoning changes ‘will drive businesses away’
The Invercargill City Council would be driving potential investors away from the city and turning its back on existing businesses if it approved radical zoning changes, business owners say.
Business owners lashed out at the council’s proposal to rezone the ‘‘sub-enterprise area’’ at hearings into the council’s proposed district plan yesterday, saying it goes against the policy direction the council took only a decade ago.
The sub-enterprise zone, which allows a mix of businesses to exist alongside each other, was established under the operational district plan. Despite the zone coming into effect less than 10 years ago, it would be scrapped and the areas within it rezoned either business or industrial under the proposed changes.
A report into the proposed plan by council senior policy planner Liz Devery says the ‘‘permissive nature’’ of the zone has drawn retail and office-based activities away from the inner city while also creating some noise issues.
Devery’s report recommends approving the plan in its current form.
Marine South owners Paul and Margie Ruddenklau said development in the sub-enterprise area had been ‘‘hugely successful’’ and described the proposed changes as ‘‘farcical’’.
The changes would effectively ‘‘pull the rug’’ from underneath businesses which had made a significant investment in the city only a few years ago, their submission says.
‘‘It now seems disingenuous for the council to turn its back on the businesses who established in this area in good faith,’’ the submission says.
Businesses which had invested in the sub-enterprise area were now staring down the barrel of changes that would punish them for their foresight.
‘‘We would be better off to take our business to Queenstown, where investment is valued and the risks we take as business owners recognised,’’ the submissions says.
‘‘We are not asking for any special treatment. We simply want the council to continue to support us in our commercial activities and offer us the same benefits that it is proposing to offer businesses in the central city.’’
Russell Cunningham Family Trust general manager Vicki Corkill said property owners had the right to expect the city council would stand by its previous decision-making, particularly when the sub-enterprise area had been so successful.
Rezoning the area would make it harder to attract customers, potentially impact on property values and dramatically increase the number of resource consents businesses would need to apply for, Corkill said.
‘‘The council needs to review the proposed zoning to ensure businesses are protected now and in the future. The proposed changes do not reflect the types of businesses operating in the subenterprise area,’’ she said.
Agribusiness Training owner Mary Fraser said the subenterprise area had added to the vibrancy of Invercargill.
It was ‘‘all go’’ on Arena Ave, where her business was located, and zoning changes would ‘‘curtail the good that’s going on’’, she said.
Stonewood Homes owner Brendan Akeroyd said businesses in the sub-enterprise area should be seen as an asset to the CBD rather than a threat.
Many of his customers would leave their cars in his carpark and walk into town to shop in the CBD, he said.
Akeroyd said he had looked at several buildings in the CBD before settling on his Arena Ave site at ‘‘quite a personal cost’’, because none of the CBD sites was appropriate for his needs.
Business development had changed in the past 20 years and Invercargill was now left with an outdated CBD that didn’t fit most businesses needs, he said.
‘‘In my case, a lot of the buildings in the CBD are old, cold and uninsulated, and that’s not a good image to convey to clients of a new home builder,’’ he said.
‘‘[The sub-enterprise area] is a warm, sunny wee part of town and changing the zoning halfway through a very successful development is not developer or businessfriendly.’’
Devery’s report says the existing plan lacked clear direction on the hierarchy of business areas and a loss of critical business mass within the CBD could affect its viability and vibrancy.
Market Economics consultant Derek Foy told the hearing 56 per cent of people employed in centredominant centres in Invercargill worked in the CBD. This was down from 64 per cent in 2000.
Decisions on the proposed district plan are expected next year.
The hearing continues today.
It now seems disingenuous for the council to turn its back on the businesses who established in this area in good faith.