23 March 2011

Supabarn kills off Giralang Woolies

| johnboy
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The Canberra Times has the sad news for Giralang residents that plans to redevelop their shops around a new Woolworths have been scuppered by the opposition of Supabarn and others:

Giralang shops closed in 2005. The site’s owner, Dimitri Nikias, proposed a redevelopment of 13 townhouses and small shops, which planning authorities rejected. With Woolworths as an anchor tenant, Mr Nikias then submitted a supermarket development which planners also rejected, saying it was too big.

Last year the ACT Planning and Land Authority approved a revised 1667sqm supermarket, speciality shops and car parks.

But rival supermarkets said Woolworths was trying for a bigger operation under the guise of storage, plant and loading dock at the back of the supermarket.

Supabarn, IGA operators, landholders and residents appealed against the approval in the ACT Administrative Appeals Tribunal and their case was set down for a hearing in May.

But the planning approval will be surrendered and the hearing won’t go ahead.

Giralang residents waiting and campaigning for a new shopping centre since 2005 now face an even longer delay.

Perhaps the best solution if one wants local shops is to not live in Giralang.

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There’s 2 shopping centres at Kaleen. The lack of a local probably hurts non-car owners the most, who can’t just have a 10 minute walk for a carton of milk. A little IGA, cafe and takeaway would be heaps. I’m bang in the middle of Civic, Ainslie and Dickson so a bit spoiled for choice.

Keijidosha said :

How “local” do the shops need to be? Kaleen shopping centre is only 1km away from the former Giralang shop site.

The main Kaleen shops is actually a 2 km drive away from the Giralang shopping site. Those shops are also at least 3.5 km from the nothern point of Giralang. Hardly walking distance if you can only walk or ride there and have to carry shopping home.

By your logic everyone has a car and we should rip out every suburban shopping centre and just focus our resources on the town centres…but then again you probably live in a suburb with a shop (Kaleen perhaps?) and would hate to see that happen.

Rollersk8r said :

Keijidosha said :

How “local” do the shops need to be? Kaleen shopping centre is only 1km away from the former Giralang shop site.

It’s not so much that we need shops, we just need something to happen with that site.

I’ve lived in Giralang for 5 years and would like to send my youngest to Giralang Primary. The suburb is enough of a bogan paradise (i.e. arid lawless wasteland) already without that site dragging the area and the school down even further.

Arid, Lawless Wasteland?! Exaggeration much!

We need to hold on to what we have. A suburb with a school, doctors sugery, petrol station, open playing fields and hopefully a new shopping centre is far from an “arid, lawless wasteland”.

Giralang residents need to stand up for their suburb and ensure we don’t get walked over by the opinions of people in adjoining suburbs who have no real interest in whether we retain the community services we are entitled to.

Some may have philosophical issues with Woolworths but a stable shopping centre that attracts decent boutique shops and a cafe will lift the profile of this suburb immensely.

niftydog said :

Tendered developments on crown land designed to meet community needs still seem to attract a lot of bids.

I think that hits the nail on the head, apparently if there are enough complaints lodged that the current leasee’s are not meeting their lease purpose clause the Govt can start steps to revoke the lease, but to complain you have to give all personal details and rum the risk of a big developer taking issue and firing legal pot shots at you.

You would think after three or four goes the govt could say, sorry you failed we’ll re-auction the land and give you the “current value” as per your first DA application if we get enough.

niftydog said :

Rollersk8r said :

I was at least hoping Woolies may have also resulted in a cafe and a decent takeaway place with it.

There was a cafe in the latest plan, but no proper space set aside for anything else. A few very, very small ’boutique shops’ were pencilled in on the revised plan, but they were essentially useless and would eventually have been subsumed by Woolies. I calculated that one of the ‘shops’ floor space was approximately four times the size of the nearby disabled toilet! The walls would have had horizontal cat claw marks…

Have a look at the next DA and get involved, because just ‘hoping’ for something like this is bound to leave you disappointed.

I have been involved, did read the DA, commented on it, posted about it here in the past, signed up for the GRAG, wrote to and had letters published in The Chronicle and CT.

Gungahlin Al4:40 pm 23 Mar 11

Keijidosha said :

How “local” do the shops need to be? Kaleen shopping centre is only 1km away from the former Giralang shop site.

Remember this is Canberra. Queanbeyan is an interstate trip. Pack your lunch first…

Rollersk8r said :

I was at least hoping Woolies may have also resulted in a cafe and a decent takeaway place with it.

There was a cafe in the latest plan, but no proper space set aside for anything else. A few very, very small ’boutique shops’ were pencilled in on the revised plan, but they were essentially useless and would eventually have been subsumed by Woolies. I calculated that one of the ‘shops’ floor space was approximately four times the size of the nearby disabled toilet! The walls would have had horizontal cat claw marks…

Have a look at the next DA and get involved, because just ‘hoping’ for something like this is bound to leave you disappointed.

Keijidosha said :

How “local” do the shops need to be? Kaleen shopping centre is only 1km away from the former Giralang shop site.

I don’t think it’s so much even if they put shops there. I could live without shops there as long as they actually DO something with it instead of leaving the old buildings to fall apart and the entire area to become a hazard. Bearing in mind it’s right next to the primary school it’s not ideal.

EvanJames said :

They’d look at you in perplexity and then horror if you suggested the above to them.

I know, crazy talk! 😉
Silly old me for suggesting somebody with money, power and influence would do something mildly altruistic of their own accord.

The government can’t (or won’t) do much in regard to redevelopments on leased land. When the lessee is in control the community has only one option, to either oppose or support the DA.

johnboy said :

You go to work each morning but wouldn’t mind if you didn’t get paid?

Tendered developments on crown land designed to meet community needs still seem to attract a lot of bids.

georgesgenitals4:20 pm 23 Mar 11

EvanJames said :

niftydog said :

It might be prudent for developers to be more aware of the types of development the community wants to see, rather than just going for big returns on investment.

Developers are the mighty private sector. They’d look at you in perplexity and then horror if you suggested the above to them. Going for maximum returns on investment is exactly what they’re about and they don’t give a pooh what the community thinks.

That’s my issue with the government in recent years handing everything over to developers to do. Government is supposed to ensure the community gets a fair go when the big boys are doing things. Developers are the big boys, and giving them carte blanche is a fox/henhouse type scenario (/Gus Hedges).

And that’s the whole point of town planning and rigorous development approval – to ensure that requirements are addressed. Maybe local govco could get its house in order regarding the management of DAs…

Keijidosha said :

How “local” do the shops need to be? Kaleen shopping centre is only 1km away from the former Giralang shop site.

It’s not so much that we need shops, we just need something to happen with that site.

I’ve lived in Giralang for 5 years and would like to send my youngest to Giralang Primary. The suburb is enough of a bogan paradise (i.e. arid lawless wasteland) already without that site dragging the area and the school down even further.

While Kaleen Supabarn meets most of my supermarket needs, the plaza is a shitty run-down complex in desperate need of redevelopment (isn’t Aldi going there?). I was at least hoping Woolies may have also resulted in a cafe and a decent takeaway place with it.

PS. What happened to the dry cleaners at Kaleen? Been closed for months now.

You go to work each morning but wouldn’t mind if you didn’t get paid?

niftydog said :

It might be prudent for developers to be more aware of the types of development the community wants to see, rather than just going for big returns on investment.

Developers are the mighty private sector. They’d look at you in perplexity and then horror if you suggested the above to them. Going for maximum returns on investment is exactly what they’re about and they don’t give a pooh what the community thinks.

That’s my issue with the government in recent years handing everything over to developers to do. Government is supposed to ensure the community gets a fair go when the big boys are doing things. Developers are the big boys, and giving them carte blanche is a fox/henhouse type scenario (/Gus Hedges).

georgesgenitals said :

…it might be prudent for government to be a bit more open about the types of development it wants to see, thus guiding the developers to faster and higher quality results.

It might be prudent for developers to be more aware of the types of development the community wants to see, rather than just going for big returns on investment. Isn’t it better to have the power in the communities hands rather than just leaving it up to the government?!

georgesgenitals1:47 pm 23 Mar 11

Hey 54-11 – I’m not going to shed a tear for developers, I was simply making the point that development IS needed given our growing population and aging buildings, but that it might be prudent for government to be a bit more open about the types of development it wants to see, thus guiding the developers to faster and higher quality results.

however bad you might think developers are think were we’d be without them.

Depends on what you mean by decent development, george. I’ve seen a number of appropriate developments get the tick by planners, adjacent businesses and community groups.

Unfortunately, there are far more inappropriate developments put forward by developers. Too big, not in keeping with the neighbourhood character, adverse effects on neighbouring businesses/properties, outside the planning rules (but ruled ok by planners because they can do so), architectural abominations, etc

Developers get wealthy by maximising everything they can – by theft of other people’s business, theft of views, theft of local amenity (eg car parks), theft of neighbourhood characteristics.

Don’t let your heart bleed for Dimitri Nikias – he’s just another developer bloodsucker.

georgesgenitals11:41 am 23 Mar 11

And people wonder why it takes so long to have devent development…

I think it’s unfortunate that the residents have to wait so long for shops, but I’m not at all disappointed that Woolies got the boot.

How “local” do the shops need to be? Kaleen shopping centre is only 1km away from the former Giralang shop site.

el_presidente10:44 am 23 Mar 11

One of the reasons I recently moved away from Giralang was the realisation that these shops are just never going to happen. The suburb feels like a bit of a wasteland these days and I think it’s largely attributable to the lack of shops.

A spokesman for Mr Nikias said he wanted to end litigation in the appeals tribunal and withdraw the development application.

”The proponents have been confronted with a significant legal fight that they have no comfort or guarantee will end quickly and could cascade into appeals, on appeals, on appeals, on appeals.”

A pragmatic approach was being explored to reassemble, re-evaluate and submit a revised proposal for the Government’s and ACTPLA’s consideration.

So there is still some hope, but geez this has dragged on for a long time.

The old shop site is now a bloody disgrace. There is no secure perimeter, there is broken glass everywhere. Considering it’s proximity to the school it really needs to be levelled and made secure. The Govt. needs to insist on this happening ASAP.

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