Tauranga's biggest industrial landlord Bob Clarkson says Tauranga City Council has let a huge development opportunity slip.
Mr Clarkson shipped off $5 million of new earthmoving machinery to Australia on Tuesday, the final act of his failed two-and-a-half year battle to get the council to sign off on his plan to rezone 20 hectares of his land at Tauriko from rural to industrial.
The council ruled against allowing his industrial rezoning application into the new City Plan. Mr Clarkson's struggle ended up in the Environment Court and included three hearings before a mediator.
The Bay of Plenty Times reported in March that a full hearing would have been held in July and it would have cost Mr Clarkson anything from $140,000-$240,000 in consultants and other fees.
He had already spent $750,000 on his plans - and convincing authorities - to rezone his 210ha of land at Tauriko to residential, as well as some industrial.
Tauranga's council decided not to include his industrial re-zoning in its new district plan, and Mr Clarkson went through three mediation hearings held by the Environment Court.
Mr Clarkson also wanted to build 1000 "affordable" homes but couldn't get council support.
He said he'd had to let four builders go - two of whom had moved to Australia.
His machinery, which included six scrapers and three 27-tonne tractors, had been sold to an Australian auction company. A $1.1 million bulldozer he purchased for the project was sold six months ago.
Mr Clarkson said he planned to sit on his Tauriko land, rather than sell, and would one day like to buy the machinery back when council "got off its ****" to reconsider its decision.
He accused the council of forcing the city into "hibernation" through a lack of willingness to progress. Mr Clarkson said the decision to stonewall his project was mind boggling considering there would have been no infrastructure cost to the council.
However, Tauranga mayor Stuart Crosby said while he'd always admired Mr Clarkson's vision and drive in his developments, when it came to Tauriko, he needed to take accountability and responsibility for his own "speculative decisions" regarding buying out of zone land, and machinery.
"I agree with Bob that the planning process is cumbersome and expensive. However, he needs to remember that this is largely as a result of the Resource Management Act, which has a sound purpose, but which has created a bureaucratic nightmare for all involved," Mr Crosby said.
"We all agree that the Act needs to change to be more facilitative while maintaining the principal of sustainable development."