Supermarket would be 'modern intrusion'

An artist's impression of a proposed Countdown on Andersons Bay Rd, Dunedin, with (inset, left) the proposed design of the rear of the building, with the Dunedin Gasworks Museum fitting shop in the foreground, and (inset, right) the site as it is. Graphic by Supplied/Photo by Craig Baxter.

The trust that runs the museum, and the facility's supporters, have raised concerns about the proximity of the rear wall of the supermarket to the museum's fitting shop.

But Progressive Enterprises, the company behind the development, countered its building would be an improvement on what was already on the site.

Progressive Enterprises wants to build a Countdown supermarket on the South Dunedin site, a non-complying activity under the council's district plan, as it would be large-scale retail activity in an industrial zone.

Yesterday's hearing was the third, and last, day of arguments for and against the application.

The company has argued the solid backdrop to the museum was something that could not be avoided if the supermarket was to be viable, and noted there was already a large building (Roofing Solutions) on the boundary of the museum site.

But opponents told a resource consent committee, of city councillors Richard Walls and Kate Wilson and commissioner David Benson-Pope, the wall would irrevocably change the setting of the museum and block sunlight during winter months.

During a submission from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, archaeologist Peter Petchey, a trustee of the gasworks museum, told the committee he had been involved with the facility for 19 years.

The site had always had an "open character", with a large building setback.

"A very large concrete slab wall within 4m of the fitting shop is therefore out of character, has no historical precedent, and dominates the much smaller historic building.

"The setting of the museum is therefore irrevocably changed, with an intrusive, overpowering and unsympathetic modern intrusion."

The Roofing Solutions building was "admittedly, already intrusive", but the supermarket wall would be longer, higher, and the effects correspondingly greater.

Mr Petchey criticised the applicant for "not seeing fit" to meet members of the trust to discuss the issue, meaning the trust had been "left on the out".