Network Video moved from Andersons Bay Rd to 257 Hillside Rd, a building that had previously been a retail outlet, but has an industrial zoning.
Owner Paul Whelan was required to attend a resource consent hearing on the issue last month, but the recently released decision has declined consent.
Commissioner Cr David Benson-Pope said in the decision allowing consent for retail activity in an industrial zone would be "likely to set an undesirable precedent".
Asked yesterday about what would happen next, Cr Benson-Pope said while it was unlikely any action would be taken during the appeal period, which ends mid-August, he said "any operation taking place outside permitted activity status would be subject to enforcement".
He said that would be a decision for council staff.
Mr Whelan’s business was non-compliant, as the land was zoned industrial 1 in the city’s district plan, and industrial in the 2GP, the city’s next version of the plan, which is yet to be finalised.
In consent documents, council staff said the effect of the business opening had been determined as no more than minor, and nobody would potentially be affected by the application.
But under the 2GP provisions the proposal was non-complying.
The matter went to a hearing held last month, where the planner representing Mr Whelan, Conrad Anderson, argued the building was not required for industrial use, and was unlikely to be required in the near future.
He said industrial land with residential neighbours, which the site had, was "quite uncommon", and the proximity of homes would affect the usability of industrial land there.
The building the video shop was in had limited industrial use, and the proposal was an efficient use of the resource in a city with 85ha of vacant industrial land.
Cr Benson-Pope said in his decision he was "not satisfied that the proposal demonstrated sufficient merit to warrant the granting of consent".
"The existing building and tenancy could easily accommodate a small service activity permitted in an industrial zone".
Mr Whelan could not be contacted yesterday.
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Comments
Why do the DCC persist in closing the gate after the horse has bolted on this area. It's been a commercial area in all but law for twenty years now.
This is absolutely disgusting. Through Council actions or inactions we have lost almost all of our larger employers in this city. Now we are starting on the smaller ones. How much longer do we need to put up with this, and when will we get a council that actually works for the city and not themselves? Did Benson-Pope ever employ anyone? We need business people in council before it's to late.