A Waitati contracting company's plans to develop a yard at Evansdale are set to head to a hearings panel after being declined by a Dunedin City Council planner.
Cargill Contracting has applied for resource consent for a yard with a workshop and office, which would also allow the sale of landscape supplies like fencing materials, gravel and woodchips.
Also on the site would be a building construction yard, where another company would construct small relocatable buildings.
Owner George Terry said there was little industrial land in the Waitati area, and he would have to consider whether to continue in his business if the application was denied.
But the council planner says developing industrial or retail uses on rural-zoned land would be an undesirable precedent.
The consent was to have been dealt with by planners in a non-notified way, as the effects were deemed no more than minor, but as it was for industrial activity in a rural zone it was decided it should go before a hearings panel.Mr Terry said the company had been run from his home on Double Hill Rd, in Waitati. The business had grown.
The application said the earthmoving and contracting company specialised in excavators, earthmovers, water carriers and demolition.
It also did road maintenance on council projects, sub-contracted for the work by Downer.
The business employed up to 20 staff who might come to the yard in the morning before being deployed.
An embankment would be created on the perimeter of the site, then landscaped with trees.
Building company Mopanui Studio Homes Ltd would use part of the site for its relocatable buildings, with capacity for making two buildings at a time.
The application said the Evansdale area had business activity over the years, and ''remnants of many past businesses'' were still obvious. It included approval from nearby land owners, the local runaka and the NZ Transport Agency.
Mr Terry was ''hopeful'' the application would be approved by the hearing committee.
To carry on with the company if it was not approved would mean finding a base in Dunedin, which made no sense for a Waitati business.
''If it gets turned down then we'll look seriously at our business, whether it's worth carrying on.''
Consultant planner Andrew Henderson said in his report aspects of the development were non-complying, and approving it would ''potentially undermine the integrity of the second generation district plan''.
As such he recommended it be declined.
The hearing panel headed by Cr Aaron Hawkins will consider the issue next Monday.
