11 April 2008

Giralang Shops -- Last day to comment on Development Application

| aidan
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Today is the deadline for submissions on the Development Application for the Giralang Shops.

• Email it to: app.sec@act.gov.au
• Mail it to: ACTPLA Applications Secretariat
PO Box 365, Mitchell 2911.
• Deliver it to:
ACTPLA, Ground Floor South, Dame Pattie Menzies House, 16 Challis Street, Dickson

The more submissions the better. If you have a stake in the future of Giralang shops then send in a submission. Your voice does count.

ACTPLA welcomes objections and comments from interested parties and states

“if you feel the application may affect you in any way and wish to object, you must lodge a written objection clearly stating the grounds for objection”

ACTPLA advises that objections to a DA need to address ACT planning issues and considerations, not simply personal opinion. You will also need to detail the nature of your interest in the shop site e.g. resident, user of the shops, family member of a pupil at the school etc.

The Giralang Residents Action Group (GRAG) has a website where they go into some detail about the problems they have with the development application.

At this late stage the only way to lodge a submission is to email it to: app.sec@act.gov.au or hand deliver it to:
ACTPLA, Ground Floor South, Dame Pattie Menzies House, 16 Challis Street, Dickson.

Objections and comments should include the following information in the title or at the top of the letter:

  • Block and section number where the development is proposed (which is Giralang Block 4, Section 79)
  • The Development Application Number which you are commenting about (which is 200801212)

[Ed. Don’t forget to check out the Riot’s Previous discussion on this subject.]

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lobster said :

The servo and the mechanics are owned by the same guy who owns the shops area?

I know the mechanics was paul wyte automotive (bloody good mechanic)and was forced out of there from mobil and thats also why the bianchini’s who had the lease were also forced out from the servo part of the business. look at the place now. what a joke. it used to be thriving.

Shops in giraland should never be anymore. Look at kaleen with three distinct shopping areas. There is hardly room for two let alone three. ‘Middle shops, you are the weakest link’

roos said :

Roos said: good luck to you in years to come lobster, every time someone takes something from you in life for their own selfish purposes, you can shrug your shoulders and tell yourself not to whinge because it’s just the way things are.

Well said, and the rest of it too.

good luck to you in years to come lobster, every time someone takes something from you in life for their own selfish purposes, you can shrug your shoulders and tell yourself not to whinge because it’s just the way things are.

If you seriously believe that a well run local centre that was properly invested in and had a few fresh ideas and initiatives couldn’t work, and you believe the shop leaseholders were genuine in trying to make things work for weekly rent rather than a $3m capital gain on townhouses, then stay at home and blog on buddy because the world out there is a better place without your direct input. If you do leave your house one day, go and take a look at Melba, Downer, Spence, Evatt, any number of suburbs with the same demographics that have thriving local centres. COuld it be that they’re well run? Could it be that they have produce on their shelves? Could it be that their owners haven’t yet cottoned on to the fact that all they have to do to turn their sites into goldmine residential developments is MAKE SURE the shops fail! But preferably, make them fail in a suburb full of lazy loser lobsters who will just say ‘oh well, that’s the way it is’

stonedwookie1:18 pm 14 Apr 08

yeh i think the servo is owned by the same guy.
i shopped there a few times but not very much the iga was really overpriced.like 3 litres of coca cola was 6 bucks
its about 15-20 minute walk to kaleen village aka supabarn if you have legs.

The servo and the mechanics are owned by the same guy who owns the shops area?

Did you actually shop at the IGA? More than bread or milk?
If you did you would have been one of the only ones.

The newsagency left because no one came to the complex before any of this started.

The hairdresser went on holidays over the new year period and just never came back a few years ago.

But yeah… If people continue to put up signs in front of houses on Chuculba then the shops will definately be saved.

The units planned for directly above the shops have two bathrooms, but only one bedroom. That is weird, perhaps they plan to convert the shops below to additonal bedrooms when they “fail to attract tenants”?

lobster,

When I moved to Giralang in 2001 there was an IGA, a bakery, a tavern, newsagent, hairdresser, takeaway, Vietnamese restaurant, service station, mechanic and auto electrician.

DESPITE the lease-holders letting the place run-down.

Now there is a servo. Period. We will never know how viable those shops were because they were killed off (4 leases were either not renewed or impossible terms offered). The mechanic and auto electrician saw the writing on the wall and went too.

I am pissed off that my local centre has been so damaged, possibly irrevocably.

I am opposed to the current development application because the retail space is a joke. It is probably too small to have the critical mass required to be successful. The retail spaces themselves are small and unsuitable for most retail applications. There are only 8 parking spaces for all the retail space. Shop owners and parking for the disabled and you’re left with .. SFA. The only loading bay is at the front of the shops.

The leaseholders have resisted putting any retail space in their development plans and only did so (grudgingly) at the insistence of the government. A cynic might be inclined to think that the retail space is designed to fail, and converted to residential space. If, indeed, the retail space were constructed at all.

Basically what Thumper said.

I think the real issue here is that we have a planning environment that enables a landlord to take steps to allow/promote a suburban shopping centre to decay so that they can reap the $ of converting it to residential.

If shops are not going to be viable, then let the Government take back the lease and re-auction the space for residential, then hopefully the community as a whole not the owner/developer get the benefit.

I live in the units directly across from the shops.
Yes. It would be great to have the shops there.
But no one went to them.
You could put all the shops that you want there. People need to actually shop at them.
No one shopped there while there were shops there. Why is everyone ready to shop there now?
Everyone would do their shopping at supabarn and then buy milk after work from the IGA.
And thats about it.
People only want the shops there so that when they sell their house they can say “Close to shops!”
The takeaway tried to reopen about 3 or 4 times and no one went there.
The tavern was the only thing making any money there. I feel bad for the people that ran the tavern.

Anyway, when it gets developed, there is going to be commercial space in it. That is better than nothing.

I am sick of all the complaining people doa bout this. If they shopped at the shops half as much as they complained, then they would still be there and be making millions.

Huh..don’t understand farout, what on earth are you talking about?

Just relocate Giralang to Tuggeranong, then we won’t have to worry about it any more.

Totally agree…specialty shops or takeaways – i know that if there was a noodle house or a small suburban restaurant, it would bring locals from all over belconnen. Look at Rocksalt.

I hear they plan to put the new dragstrip there.

Suburban shops can do OK, provided they are attractive to the population. A few drawcards are good too, as out-of-area people will go to the shops in order to visit the drawcard. Kambah’s home brew emporium being one example, Mountain Creek at Griffith another. Campbell’s doing well, with two eateries (one up market, one normal/take away), a bakery, groggery (good one), great little supermarket with really interesting stuff and great service, hairdresser, medical people etc etc.
Look at Ainslie, too. Giralang’s population should be getting mature enough to have locals wanting local stuff?

Professional shopowners could manage it. The owners of the Giralang Tavern were kicked out despite paying $1000/week rent. See

http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2005/s1416249.htm

but here are the money quotes from the former owners:

“We’d been there since 1992 so that was 13 years, it was a suburban tavern basically and we had a big TAB outlet which was highly successful, the business itself was really successful and it was just a really happy suburban tavern.”

“It seems to be unfair to us that government didn’t play any part in it all or put pressure on the land lord to maintain the shops in a suitable fashion.”

and from http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2005/s1421237.htm (also the former Tavern owner):

“I think the place had great potential. It looks a bit run down and over the period of time that we were there, there was very little done to improve the outlook of the shops and I think run properly it could have been a great success.”

Here’s a suggestion for the bleaters of Giralang who demand their shops re-open in a large friendly neighbourhood shopping centre:

Quit your jobs, set up and run the various stores required to make a full shopping centre, and see how much profit you generate to keep your usinesses viable and your lifestyles intact.

If professional shopowners and managers couldn’t manage to do it, I’m damn sure you won’t.

Another alternative is to force a law through the ACT govmint requiring people who live in Giralang to shop at the local shops… that might work

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