Olliff farms are an award-winning free-range egg farm in north Auckland. In addition to selling eggs, Oliff Farms were eager to expand their offerings and start a retail shop, both on- site and online. This would showcase and sell foods and goods from local suppliers, complementary to the eggs already being sold. However, in a rural zone, this isn’t an activity that the Auckland Unitary Plan permits, and resource consent was required.
Rural zones have a very different focus to other zones, and non- production activities, such as retail in this case, require careful design and detailed planning assessment. This includes not only the buildings, on- site servicing, access and parking areas, but the actual retail activity and how it operates. In rural areas, you really do need planners with rural experience to get the best results.
In this case after meeting with our clients, we provided suggestions on how the retail activity could operate, what was sold, parking and servicing. Our planning advice was based on both achieving our clients’ goals, and proposing an activity that, based on our experience, had less resource consent risk. We also provided advice on what other specialist advice and information was required and manged the resource consent process for them. This gave our client the confidence and time to then plan the details of the new shop building, arrange builders and other contractors and contact shop suppliers.
We lodged a comprehensive resource consent application, which was granted soon after on a non- notified basis. This has allowed Olliff Farms to open their new shop on the farm, selling not only new products but also attracting new purchasers for their award- winning eggs.
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