“Everybody says there’s a great economic boom. There isn’t in Dunedin, and we’ve got to tighten our belt.” -Marty Hay
### ODT Online Mon, 7 Jul 2014
Consent process blamed for veg store closure
By Shawn McAvinue
A costly consent hearing is being blamed for Veggie Boys’ Mosgiel store withering economically and it will close at the end of the month. Veggie Boys’ co-owner Marty Hay said the Bush Rd store was not economically viable and management had decided to ‘‘pull the pin”. The outlet had been open nearly two years but three months after opening, business became difficult when the owners were required to obtain a consent for it to operate, he said.
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█ Notified decision (2.5.13): LUC-2012-563 58 Ayr St, Mosgiel – Letter of decision. ● Note: Notified decision LUC-2012-563 removed from DCC online listings at http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/planning/browse-notified-decisions.
█ Non-notified decision (14.1.14): “58 Ayr Street Mosgiel (LUC-2012-563/A) – This consent was an application to/for s127 change or cancellation of conditions at 58 Ayr Street Mosgiel. This was considered by the Council’s Senior Planner (Consents) on 14 January 2014.” Go to (currently at page 2) http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/planning/browse-non-notified-decisions ● Note: DCC failed to consult the original 11 submitters on LUC-2012-563 before granting this decision.
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Related Posts and Comments:
2.4.13 Dunedin: Developers stoop to resource consents instead of private plan change applications
9.1.13 Fresh veggies, a holiday mystery
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
It didn’t take long for the people of Mosgiel to work out what they were being sold. Mosgiel people know quality when they see it. So let’s blame the consent process and a submitter for Veggie Boys failure. Yeah Right.
I think their quality is good. So are their prices and their friendliness.
What Quality Liz. Do they have a quality policy ? not from where some of the stuff was coming from. Prices probably reflect the quality.
It sounds like sour grapes has closed Veggie Boys Mosgiel. It would appear that they did not want to comply with all the rules and regulations that their competitors must follow, it appears that they had no quality standards for what they were buying in, and now they are paying the price.
The first rule of business when you make a bad decision. Blame someone else.
First up, Veggie Boys/Wal’s did require resource consent to operate and the DCC was clear about that in notifying the application in 2012.
I’m thinking a combination of factors is closer to the truth, including distance from the main shopping street at Mosgiel (Gordon Road) and what counts as convenience for most grocery buyers (see competition with supermarkets’ one-stop shopping). I’m also thinking about the local demographic – Veggie Boys is a bit out of the way for older patrons and those with mobility problems or no car. And I’m not sure Wal’s as a destination ‘retail-leisure’ hub actually fits with fruit and veggie buying where the margin is kept relatively low according to sources of supply. The fact that the enterprise is located ostensibly out of zone and isn’t pushing a lot of Taieri-grown horticultural product means there’s little ability to claim premium prices at volume through the cash register to balance loss leaders (so to cover operationals including staff pay, and make profit). Compare with ‘farm gate’ berry and lettuce growers in the area – fresh product, ability to meet the grower etc – and who, for example, also sell to supermarkets as well as run stalls at the Otago Farmers Market. I was hoping Wal’s would take the initiative to cultivate those potato crops and other veggie crops promised on their site for sale at Veggie Boys, what happened?
Sad to lose a business and jobs from the area. Their other stores appear to be trading well.
Location location location – operating model operating model for location.
Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story ODT. They reported that the council granted the resource consent. The facts are that the council planner wanted the application of Veggie Boys Mosgiel declined. No mention of that in the article. Instead it appeared they wanted to blame it all on the submitter.
It was the hearings committee comprised of Benson-Pope (chair), Noone and Hudson that made the recommendation. Council only rubber stamped the hearings committee decision.
That leaves the question. What is the point of spending millions of dollars on a District Plan, when a hearings committee can ignore it.
The Dunedin City District Plan, loosely put, is a ‘living document’ and developers will constantly try to push it over for their own ends – through strategic timing, staging and argument at hearings for resource consents and plan changes, etc.
Add to that, we have at DCC a history of mayors pushing their favourite agendas (typical for any council), a host of councillors (past and present) on the hearings committee who lack independence and (silently) work if not for themselves then their friends in the development community (same applies at most councils), and some team leaders/managers at City Planning who appear to be persuaded very easily on consenting matters if it reads politically that economic development SHOULD HAPPEN – which runs a little counter to the current requirements and provisions of the RMA (same applies at most councils). That’s resource management as we know it in New Zealand (involving a fair bit of corruption and coercion in holy Godzone) before the National-led government in its next term obliterates the RMA to favour developers over communities.
Read the objectives, policies, methods and rules of the district plan that apply to the Rural Zone and the Local Activity Zone at Mosgiel.
I agree that is a living document. However, it should be evolving in front of the developers, to guide them. It should not, as in our case, be evolving to fit the model being created by the developers. That’s the tail wagging the dog. There is a good reason why City Planning includes the word Planning.
Completely agree, what’s happening is DCC’s decisive lack of ability to >enforce< according to the letter.
In the case of Veggie Boys operating out of zone. How is it that they were allowed to carry on their business before they had to go through a resource consent process. Is this the standard now for Dunedin. Do what you like, then apply for a consent. Then blame everybody else if you don’t make it.
It’s probably called favouritism shown to the land owner. After all, a string of non-notified consents had applied previously for out of zone activity and such. Further, I’m not sure the store owners hadn’t been led to believe they were covered by existing consents.
Poor Fellas – Misreading those pesky zoning regulations on the Taieri – Should have gone to ‘Sid Savers’ – Then everybody involved would have seen the light.
I think they misread what the word quality meant to the Mosgiel people.
“You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.”
The question is. Were Veggie Boys set up to go through a costly consent process, and then for the business to fail, for someone else to pick it up at no cost to carry on with ?
“Fools build castles for wise men to live in.”
Digger, if by that you mean why has Clive Wallis got a sign up now at the site’s shed to sell wood and coal which until a certain date at least was (or still is) prohibited under consent conditions then…
Curiosity is getting the better of me. On doing a little research on this. Why was Veggie Boys the only notified consent on this site. It appears that there have been multiple non-notified consents on this site. Veggie Boys appears to be the only one that was notified, and they are not the land owners. Can anybody shed any light on this. As to why Veggie Boys were the only notified consent on this site, when there is a florists and a restaurant on site, that would appear to be non-complying with the Rural zone of the district plan. With what Elizabeth is telling us there is now wood and coal available.
Could it be that a 27-storeyed building is a possibility non-notified?
The short article today adds nothing new to the one published on 7 July (see post at top of thread):
Veggie Boys outlet to close
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/308629/veggie-boys-outlet-close
Looking at today’s ODT it looks like the truth is starting to come out about Veggie Boys. Of their tens of thousands of $’s for consents. It turns out council’s bill was only $7562. What did the rest get spent on. Sounds like bullshit to me, a bit like the quality of what they sell, appears to be somebody’s rejects.
They got caught out trying to establish in Mosgiel by the back door method, when other business have to go through the proper process.
It sounds like they got what they deserve.
The Journalism on this Veggie Boys story is a shocker. We now have the council having to come out and distance themselves from the so-called tens of thousands for a consent. The story itself has a lot of finger pointing, but not a lot of substance. Where do they find these reporters, straight out of school? They must come cheap, as there appears to be quite a turnover of them.
Supplied, ODT 11.7.14 (page 10)
Alan Worthington has specifically kept to rebuttal of Marty Hay’s claims – and this is useful.
I wonder if Veggie Boys are still friends with Clive Wallis, the property owner (Wal’s Plant and Fun Land). Things must surely have cooled.
Of course, DCC’s dilemma is its history of giving Clive Wallace what he wants by granting a string of non-notified consents (see out of zone activities), via Cr Weatherall and with ex Cr Syd Brown’s behind-scenes urgings.
The day Alan Worthington writes a letter about that, with sensible advice from above, is the day we rejoice.
I wonder when Clive Wallis’ potato plants and more will produce for sales at the empty shed left by Veggie Boys – once all his unwanted trees are chopped up on site and he’s been prevented from trucking in wood and coal from god knows where, (heavy vehicles) along Riccarton Road, contrary to the existing conditions of consent.
A little birdie says Syd Brown isn’t a well man – has cancer of the mouth or throat. A difficult surgery this week. Previous radiotherapy didn’t clean it up.
Hadn’t heard that, hmm. Thanks.
Hadn’t heard that, hmm. Thanks.
Veggie Boys to close at the end of the month ? We are now into the next month and Veggie Boys are still operating out of Wal’s.
They make a big noise about closing at the end of the month. Blame the Resource consent, council and submitters for the closure.
Sounds like their word is like their produce. All shit.
Sally, wonder wonder. Why did they go to the media and why they extend their stay? – legal action or threat of same between Veggie Boys and the owner of Wal’s Plant and Fun Land? Doubt that any of this will increase sales for any extended amount of time.
Council hearings committee must now find themselves between a rock and a hard place with the St John applying for a resource consent to have retail in the Industrial zone in South Dunedin.
Not long ago the council hearings committee with both Noone and the Pope making up the majority (as they do on the St John hearing), gave against planning advice Veggie Boys consent to operate retail in the rural zone. This Veggie Boys consent now sets a precedent for the hearings committee to ignore the district plan, and sound planning advice, and allow St John to operate a retail business in an Industrial zone. If the hearing committee try to turn it down, then the Veggie Boys decision could come back and bite them on the arse.
Watch this space.
It will be interesting to see who, at no cost, picks up the Veggie Boys consent on the Taieri. That they complained so bitterly about, costing them thousands of dollars to obtain.
Big announcement coming up Labour Weekend.
Let me get this right? Veggie Boys got hauled through the consenting process retrospectively for trading out of zone – now, someone wants to profit from their business failure at THAT address. Larks.
As predicted on What If 13 Oct. Big opening of Wal’s Vegeland on the old Veggie Boys site out on the Taieri. Advertising Local fresh produce. Tomatoes and Strawberries. Strange that, as there are no local Tomato, or Strawberry growers in the area.
I take it there might be something in the tree ODT advertising this merry contrivance at Wal’s. Did Veggie Boys get used? If so, a particularly low move.
Where is the produce being sourced from!? Won’t take long to find out.
Poor old Veggie Boys. Have they been ripped off ? Paid out thousands of dollars to obtain a non-complying consent. To find that certain things were used against them to fail, while somebody was waiting in the wings to pick up the pieces at no cost. As the old song goes. When will they ever learn.
Opening Specials at Wal’s Vege Land. Tomatoes $4.99 kg.
Just around the corner at New World tomatoes are $4.49 kg, and 100% NZ grown.
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Interesting!
### ODT Online Wed, 5 Nov 2014
Customers can veg out at Wal’s
By Alastair Lynn
A new vegetable store is breathing life into the void left by the closed Veggie Boys shop at Wal’s Plant Land. Owner Clive Wallis and manager Mike Roberts are excited to be under way with the new project.
Read more
Plan B must have been for Veggie Boys to do all the setup and the costs (thousands of dollars according to Veggie Boys) associated to get it off the ground. Then sit and watch it fall over, and pick up the pieces, at very little cost, and bring on Plan A.
Magic eh