Petley said he was \u201cneutral towards the whole thing\u201d but agreed that having a Starbucks and Burger King in town would change things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m open-minded about it. The reality is that nothing is like it used to be last week,\u201d Petley told the Waikato Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived in T\u012brau, my wife and I owned a business there several years ago, and a lot has changed since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the uniqueness was the antique shops and the hotel was open then.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese [antique] shops are not there anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything that happens in the district is gonna change over time … it\u2019s part of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Petley said people\u2019s concerns were valid and it would be a shame to see T\u012brau change \u201cdrastically\u201d.<\/p>\n
He believed the Starbucks and Burger King development would not be a drastic change and it could be \u201cuplifting\u201d for the town.<\/p>\n
South Waikato Mayor Gary Petley. Photo \/ South Waikato District Council<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had assurance that the majority of staff will be sourced locally which is uplifting, considering the lost jobs [in the district] in recent months.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to concerns about the development\u2019s impact on local cafes, Petley said they had different audiences as the fast-food offering would not appeal to everyone.<\/p>\n
He also said there were only a few options for getting a meal in T\u012brau after 3.30pm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who want to stop in T\u012brau will always stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s wait and see. It may not be as bad as what [some] people think.<\/p>\n
T\u012brau is located on SH1. Photo \/ Danielle Zollickhofer<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s embrace the opportunities that come with it, especially in regards to employment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local resident Geoff Poole, who previously launched a petition against the proposal, said he was disappointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI certainly won\u2019t be celebrating,\u201d he told the Waikato Herald.<\/p>\n
However, he said he was \u201cat peace\u201d with the decision and wouldn\u2019t take legal action or protest the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did everything we could, we spoke up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel sorry for the local businesses that are going to be affected by it [the development].\u201d<\/p>\n
An artist rendering of what the proposed Tirau Starbucks and Burger King development could look like.<\/p>\n
T\u012brau Ward councillor Kerry Purdy said there had been \u201ca range of passionate opinions\u201d about the development that were considered during the submission period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have heard from more people in favour of the application than against.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she hadn\u2019t heard of anyone wanting to appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It\u2019s] now a wait and see if there is an appeal. As T\u012brau Ward councillor, I will be watching along with everyone else and waiting to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wouldn\u2019t share her personal view on the development yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil the application process is complete, including the appeal timeframe, I won\u2019t give my views as I\u2019d hate to be the cause of an expensive judicial review.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2023, Tahua Properties Limited, a New Zealand retail and hospitality investment company that operates Starbucks New Zealand, Burger King New Zealand and Popeyes New Zealand, applied for a resource consent from South Waikato District Council.<\/p>\n
The application was publicly notified in June last year.<\/p>\n
The independent commissioners granted resource consent, with conditions on October 10.<\/p>\n
The conditions include the restriction of operating hours to between 5am and 11pm, instead of the proposed 5am to 2am.<\/p>\n
Lit-up signs must be turned off at 11pm and a speed hump and pedestrian priority markings must be included.<\/p>\n
Other conditions include the consideration of school hours during construction, restrictions on lighting and signs, landscaping and waste management.<\/p>\n
Danielle Zollickhofer is the Waikato news director and a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Petley said he was \u201cneutral towards the whole thing\u201d but agreed that having a Starbucks and Burger King…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95,70953,806,15435,5195,36595,138,8608,170,35369,23500,9860,20829,7810,10934,5978,111,139,5006,69,384,70952,2687,312,10534,544,1240,24918,30947,5662,47147,1524,5273,1316],"class_list":["post-95789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-and","tag-anticipate","tag-as","tag-bad","tag-be","tag-burger","tag-business","tag-comes","tag-development","tag-gary","tag-impact","tag-king","tag-locals","tag-may","tag-mayor","tag-might","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-people","tag-petley","tag-saying","tag-says","tag-see","tag-some","tag-south","tag-starbucks","tag-suggests","tag-think","tag-trau","tag-waikato","tag-wait","tag-when"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}