A director of a company behind a proposal to build a petrol station on fertile Heretaunga Plains land says there is no alternative site on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway.

Hamachek Holdings, owned 50% by HB grower Kevin Bailey, wants to build a truck stop, service station, retail service area, cafe and fruit shop facilities on the corner of State Highway 2 and Evenden Rd, Twyford, opposite Delegat Wines.

The resource consent application lodged with Hastings District Council will be heard by an independent commissioner on August 10. It has attracted 22 submissions – 15 in opposition and four in support.

The land is classed as Plains Production land, a council zoning that recognises it as having nationally significant growing soils.

Hamachek director Matt Lawson said the closures of McCain and Wattie’s showed a key issue. Without infrastructure keeping up with growth and allowing growers to get their produce to market efficiently, “there’s no point in having fertile soil”, he said.

But opponents of the plan, pressure group Save the Plains, said it “wholeheartedly and fervently opposed the application”.

Richard Gaddum, spokesperson for the group, said in his submission he “jointly, wholeheartedly and fervently” opposed the application for several reasons, including the fact it would “open the floodgates” for others wanting to cover the “elite soils on the Heretaunga Plains”.

He said the closest precedent for the application was Bunnings’ request for a resource consent to build a retail warehouse at the other end of Evenden Rd beside the Pakowhai Rd roundabout. “This application was also on our most elite soils on the Heretaunga Plains (and on Plains Production Zoned land),” Gaddum said. “As the HDC well knows, the council declined the application, well supported by an Environmental Court ruling, citing that the council needs to protect our versatile and elite soils and avoid the continual ad hoc industrial.”

Other submitters raised concerns about the storage of large amounts of fuel in an area that flooded in Cyclone Gabrielle, suggesting it was within a high-risk flood zone.

In November 2025, following a public notice about the project, Mayor Wendy Schollum said the proposal was classed as a non-complying activity, which means it must meet a very high bar to be approved. “The Heretaunga Plains are among the most fertile soils in the country, and our District Plan is designed to protect that while allowing fair consideration of any application under the law.”

Delegat also opposed the resource consent. It said in its submission it had serious traffic safety concerns for its workers and visitors and the development would “create visual effects that would detract from the Delegat winery site and surrounding rural amenity”.

A report by consultant planner Rowena Macdonald prepared for Hastings District Council said the proposal was contrary to the objectives and policies of the Hastings District Plan, and it should be declined. Macdonald said the proposal was considered a significant departure from the clear and understood policy direction for the Plains Production Zone, and there were no particular features that made it exceptional or “which warrant an exception being made to the clearly intended outcomes sought by the District Plan”.

Lawson said he was disappointed the vision had received the feedback it had so far from the council. “We are confident in our application and have always known the fertile soil would be a prime issue,” he said. “But we will have really resilient infrastructure to underpin the economic development of the region.”

He said he acknowledged Save the Plains’ concerns.

“I’m a grower as well. “But the site had to be near a roundabout and on a key transport corridor. State Highway 2 has to have a service station for it to be efficient.”

In its application, Hamachek Holdings said the effects on the wider rural character and amenity would be mitigated because there was “generous space around the proposal which will prevent other built forms being established in close proximity, and which can be planted to help buffer, screen and provide amenity around the site”.

It said there were other built activities along the SH2 corridor, including the Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park which had “limited, if any, connection to the surrounding rural landscape”.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.