Bunnings homeless after court turns down appeal

The Environment Court has turned down an appeal by Bunnings which wanted to build a 10,263sq m home improvement store on Pakowhai Rd on land zoned for food production.

The 15 working days in which Bunnings could have appealed the decision to the High Court have expired.

Hastings District Council initially declined the application by the Australian-owned chain and the matter went to an independent commissioner's hearing in 2009. Bunnings appealed that decision to the Environment Court in March.

The court was told Bunnings was unable to find a suitable site in the Hastings commercial and industrial areas.

The Pakowhai Rd site was one of several suggested to Bunnings executives by Hastings District mayor Lawrence Yule who said he explained the zoning difficulty to them at the time. "I always told them that one would be too hard to get over the line," he said.

The council created the Heretaunga Plains Zone to ensure food production for future generations. In court it said the 26,000ha was "eminently suitable for a wide range of productive soil-based activities", and recognised as a premier growing region of the South Pacific.

Council resource consent manager Katrina Brunton said the Environment Court judge's decision is a "clear endorsement of council policy to control encroachment on to land located in the plains zone."

David Mardon, of neighbouring Pernel Orchard gave the court a list of crops that could be grown on the Bunnings site. Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers Association also gave evidence, fearing the store would be a precedent for further Plains Zone encroachment.

Bunnings has not had success in establishing a large store in Hawke's Bay. It was locked out of the Nelson Park development in Hastings because Mitre 10 was an anchor tenant.

The chain did have an option to purchase a site in Napier's Prebensen Drive in 2004 but let the option lapse while waiting ratification from its Australian head office.

This gave the Hawke's Bay-based Ricketts family the opportunity to present the vendors with an equally good offer and the site is now the home of Mitre 10 Mega.