A couple's two-year legal wrangle with the Whangarei District Council and neighbours is over after they were given the green light to shift their business not far from its old site.
Neil Engebretsen and Yumin Song ran the Taurikura General Store for seven years and after its lease expired in 2013, they bought a three-bedroom house and an attached sleepout about 60 metres down and across the road.
Mr Engebretsen proposed to convert his new property into a 12-seat cafe, general store and post office with 10 on-site carparks which would operate between 7am and 9pm seven days a week.
He lodged a resource consent with WDC but council planners recommended their proposal to reopen the business be rejected after 10 neighbours, four adjacent to his property, opposed the project.
The proposed store is in a District Living 1 Environment, which requires that commercial activities be shielded from view and not operate outside the hours of 8am-6pm.