When Dominick Unterberger began clearing the site for his Richmond carwash business, he thought he would have it up and running within two years.
But it took four years to complete and cost nearly $400,000 above budget, and he says it should not be so hard for people to build a new business.
He built his first carwash business in Nelson in just eight months, completing it in 2014 when he was still in his 20s.
Then he bought a site on Lower Queen St in Richmond and proceeded to subdivide the site and get consent for the carwash at the front.
By the end of 2017 he had cleared out the hedge and stripped the site in preparation for the project, even before houses began to sprout on the Berryfields subdivision opposite.
Two years later he was overseeing the construction of the pad for the carwash and it looked like things were progressing well.
But, since then, it has been a long road.
He says there were hold-ups outside of his control and “the goal posts changed” from stormwater to resource consenting.
Each time a change occurred, it meant completely redesigning the carwash stormwater plan and he says it all costs money.
“Every time you change something like stormwater, it has to be redesigned, re-engineered and approved.”
When he stripped topsoil from the site onto his section to the rear, that is part of the larger site he subdivided into separate lots, he had to get a consultant to prepare a 95-page environmental impact report.
Though he says a report is somewhat justified, it should not be as expensive and difficult to do it.
Dominick acknowledges he could have done some things differently and that has been part of his own learning experience.
Towards the end of the project, he began using consultants to deal with the council who knew the lingo and had ongoing working relationships with staff.
That also comes with a cost though and he says it all makes business development more expensive and uses funding that would be better spent generating more business.
“I just want to build businesses. Having unnecessary road blocks get in the way has been frustrating.
“It’s not a blame game, but the increasing costs from regulation that are outside our control is horrendous and discourages growth.
“Every time an extra cost is imposed on us, it’s not like we can impose that cost on to the public all the time.”
He says increasing regulation is often just about ticking boxes and discourages the ability to find practical solutions, when there should be an element of common sense.
“It wasn’t like I was trying to reinvent the wheel. This (carwash) is not complex. It’s quite simple.”
Now that the carwash is complete and in operation, his next project is to develop self-storage units on the site behind and he has two further design and build sections.
Dominick is also working with his business partner Jared Guthrie to develop a site beside the Sprig and Fern in Māpua into two shops with apartments two levels above them. It is currently in the final design process.
He is also looking at potential sites in Motueka to build another carwash facility.
