Liquorland franchisee Chris Hart, who owns Leith St Liquorland, said he was not against new cycleways but he felt the Dunedin City Council (DCC) had not properly consulted on the proposal for Albany St.
"They’ve treated the whole thing as a fait accompli and rode roughshod over due process," Mr Hart said.
"The whole process was corrupted by the DCC failure to identify and notify the businesses as stakeholders and affected parties," he said.
"This was due to DCC negligence at best. At worst, it can be interpreted as cherry-picking who to consult to get a pre-determined result."
Hearings were held on the proposal late last year, but Mr Hart said many businesses were not given enough lead-in time to make a submission before the deadline.
The Otago Daily Times has asked the council for the submissions but has not received them.
The proposal for the Albany St cycleway connection, recommended 2-1 at last month’s hearings committee meeting, would cost the area 68 carparks.
Crs Mandy Mayhem and Jim O’Malley voted in favour, while deputy mayor Cherry Lucas voted against it.
"The project as it now stands strip-mines the northern side of Albany St for 10 blocks, taking every park. There will be no ability to stop.
"Businesses want four to six parks, less than 10% of what will be taken," Mr Hart said.
"Plans have been made to show it can be easily done."
Veggie Boys owner Parvesh Kumar said there were positives and negatives to the proposal.
He owns two stores in Dunedin, one of them in Albany St.
"There are lots of students who do cycle, so this will be a good addition for them.
"However, we are concerned about losing our parking, because many of our customers come from Port Chalmers or Mosgiel and need a place to park so they can collect their goods."
Council correspondence obtained by the ODT said providing carparks on the north side of Albany St could be possible if the cycleway was a shared path instead of a dedicated cycle lane.
"However, officers could not recommend this option to council because it does not represent value for money for council and is inconsistent with the design philosophy of the separated cycle path," it said.
"The additional cost of about $75,000 for each carpark is not viable and we would not be able to secure funding to do this."
The hearing took place late last year, but the hearings committee agenda said the project had been in development for some time.
"A single-stage business case was developed to seek co-funding from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency in 2021-22.
"Through this business case, several options for a cycleway have been assessed and a bi-directional cycleway was determined to be the preferred option.
"Engagement with key stakeholders (Waka Kotahi, Otago Regional Council, University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic, OUSA, OPSA, Otago Museum, CCS Disability Action, Spokes, Hospital Bike User Group, Turners Auction, Hilton Haulage, WAE Crane Hire) helped determine this option."
The cycleway is proposed to cost about $2 million.
The council was asked for a response to the concerns but a spokesman said it was "yet to consider this project as part of the capital expenditure programme in the 10-year plan, and we would not be able to provide more information until then".
