Various proposals have been put forward for the site on Ford Rd over the past decade, all opposed by the existing Fairleys SUPA IGA supermarket, which has long held a permit for two supermarkets and associated retail and shops 400 metres south on Hawkins St.
A planning permit was issued in April 2012 for an expanded IGA retail complex, but it has not been acted on.
Either development would be encouraged under Greater Shepparton City Council’s Commercial Activities Centre Strategy, but both proceeding would exceed the 8000sq m floorspace cap for the Shepparton North Activity Centre.
The cap is designed to limit the scale and nature of retailing to protect higher order retail areas, including the CBD.
In recent days Lascorp Investment Group has lodged a new planning application with council for a supermarket, shop, food and drink premises and childcare centre; licensed premises (packaged liquor); and removal of native vegetation.
Publicly available information on the project says it will be anchored by a full-line supermarket (3760sq m) plus 15 specialty shops, one DVD kiosk and one ATM.
Previous plans have included a hotel fronting Numurkah Rd, but the latest version shows a pub on the south-east corner of Numurkah Rd and Ford Rd.
The stalemate over development in Shepparton North reached the Supreme Court before the parties agreed to Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne appointing a Shepparton North Activity Centre advisory committee to make recommendations.
The committee determined that the Ford Rd development was not the best outcome in the context of state and local policy, and approval of the planning scheme amendment and issuing a permit would result in two separate retail nodes.
“This is not how activity centres should be planned,” the committee said in its final report.
Based on the evidence and submissions, the committee favoured a single, integrated and well-functioning retail core, rather than two disconnected stand-alone retail nodes.
However, the committee said it would have been inclined to accept the well-constructed arguments put by Lascorp if there was no other permit in place, and said a time imperative existed for the existing IGA supermarket to act on its verbal commitment to proceed to develop the site, adding that the community would be worse off if “nothing happens”.
The News has sought details of Mr Wynne’s final determination on the previous application.
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