Restricted opening hours set by a Dunedin City Council
resource consent committee for a planned McDonald's
restaurant in Mosgiel have led the company to review the
development.
A McDonald's spokeswoman said yesterday the company was
committed to opening an outlet in Mosgiel, but the restricted
hours meant "extra due diligence about the viability of the
whole thing" was being done on the Hartstonge Ave site.
"Fundamentally, the reduced trading hours would have a big
impact on business."
Rumours about the future of the development have been doing
the rounds since a council consent committee released its
decision just before Christmas last year.
Residents of neighbouring properties last year told the
hearings committee of Crs Colin Weatherall (chairman), Andrew
Noone, Paul Hudson and Mosgiel Taieri Community Board member
Bill Feather they opposed the plan, because of the effects of
noise, traffic, glare and lighting.
The restaurant site, a long, narrow section in Hartstonge
Ave, lies between the New World supermarket and a complex of
17 privately owned houses and flats which have been built
within the past three years.
McDonald's does not own the land.
Lloyd Morshuis, of Econ Ltd, is still listed as the
ratepayer.
The consent decision restricted hours to 6am to 10pm, apart
from Fridays and Saturdays, when closing time would be 11pm.
Neither residents nor McDonald's appealed the decision, and
rumours recently suggested the company was looking for
another site.
The spokeswoman said she was not aware of the rumours.
Asked whether the development was still going ahead, she said
the company was going through the resource consent decision,
and the "quite substantial" cut-back on trading hours.
The company had not appealed the decision because appeals
were costly for everybody, she said.
"We have to weigh up the cost benefit of everything we do."
The company was communicating with Mr Morshuis, although not
recently, and staff were "working on the design in
background".
"We definitely do want to be in Mosgiel."
If the development was in, for instance, Greenlane in
Auckland, with 50,000 cars passing a day, the situation might
be different, she said.
- david.loughrey@odt.co.nz
Bookmark/Search this post with:
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.