Objections heard to planning proposal

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32966, 12 July 1972, Page 12

Objections heard to planning proposal

A proposal to establish the first South Island outlet of Kentucky Fried Chicken (New Zealand), Ltd, met with two formal objections before a town planning committee of the Riccarton Borough Council on Monday evening.

The company, which is owned equally by the Kentucky Fried Chricken Corporation of Kentucky and General Fords Corporation (N.Z.) Ltd, wants permission to open a shop at the corner of Riccarton Road and Picton Avenue. The company proposes to prepare and sell cooked chicken and takeaway meals. At present the site is partly in the Commercial B zone and partly in the Residential B zone of the planning scheme. Under the proposed review of the scheme, the site would be all Residential B. The company seeks specified departures from both the schemes and also conditional use.

Formal objections to the proposal were lodged by the Regional Planning Authority and the owners of the adjoining property in Picton Avenue, Mr and Mrs H. G. Bryant (Mr J. R. Woodward).

Counsel for the applicant, Mr S. H. Wood, said Kentucky Fried Chicken’s product was essentially a takehome meal and the nature of the business should not be confused with that of snack bars, hamburger bars, fish and chip shops. The site was on the left or “go-home” side of Riccarton Road, so that only a minority of its customers would want to turn across the traffic stream and they could be directed by signs to enter the premises from Picton Avenue, Mr Wood said. Mr Woodward said that if the council granted the application it would be a reversal of its Town Planning policy. The proposed depot would generate a very commercial atmosphere. Mr Bryant said he had recently purchased the property

at 106 Picton Avenue for a number of special reason. The last thing he wanted was a number of callers in motor vehicles to an adjoining property late at night Mr G. W. Main said the Regional Planning Authority had carried out a peak hour, mid-week survey which revealed that about 1900 vehicles had used Riccarton Road hourly. The daily flow was about 21,000.

The road was already badly congested and had a high accident rate. The siting of the company’s depot there would attract additional traffic to Riccarton Road and in turn cause additional problems.