There are new plans to get a fast food chain into the Chisholm Shops after a failed bid for a McDonald’s led to community outcry and legal battles over a public toilet. Photo: File.
Three years after they tried – and failed – to get a McDonald’s into Chisholm shops, the centre’s owners have lodged new plans for a different fast food chain.
This time, Chisholm Village Pty Limited has proposed that a KFC be built at the local shopping centre at a cost of $1.2 million.
If approved, it will be built at Block 48 and 49 Section 539 Chisholm, on the opposite side of the centre to the ill-fated proposed McDonald’s, opposite Aldi.
The proposed site currently houses a car park.
The proposed site for the KFC at Chisholm. Image: Screenshot.
The drive-through restaurant proposal includes plans for car wash facilities, new supermarket click-and-collect facilities and six parking spaces.
Six trees would need to be removed to allow for the build.
According to the planning report, community consultation has not been undertaken for the lodgement of the DA as it was not required.
The company’s latest attempt to get a fast food restaurant in the centre comes after a legal battle over a toilet block scuppered the $2.2 million development application.
The McDonald’s proposal required the demolition of what was, at the time, the site of the Chisholm Tavern and the purchase of a public toilet block.
The community – with tripartisan political support – was up in arms over the proposal and three petitions to halt it were lodged with the ACT Government.
Two successive development applications for the McDonald’s were rejected because there were other McDonald’s nearby, concerns about congestion and waste and more.
Both of those decisions were then overturned in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT), but in the end, it took the ACT Government refusing to sell the toilet block that halted McDonald’s proposal.
The shopping centre owners said they would challenge that decision.
As the ACT’s lockdown was extended, Chisholm Tavern owners Graham and Jennifer Hunt shut up shop in September last year. Photo: Michael Weaver.
In the end, it was COVID-19 that claimed the life of the Chisholm Family Tavern in September last year.
Owners Graham and Jennifer Hunt cited factors such as the imposition of occupancy limits in place for 18 months, despite the lack of COVID cases in the ACT at the time.
The owners said they did not want to retire but, without a real reduction in rent, had been left with no choice.
“The fight to keep the Tavern doors open was long and hard and went on for almost two years against not only landlords, but a huge business entity as well,” the statement read.
Region sought comment from Chisholm Village Pty Limited.
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