McHarrys Bus Depot Permit Application before Geelong Council on Tuesday 22 April

At the Geelong Council meeting on Tuesday 22 April 2014 the Council will consider the planning permit for McHarrys Buslines in Murradoc Road and an amendment for the Drysdale Urban Design Framework to enable the planning permit to be considered. As there are objections to the permit, Council will be referring this to an independent panel to resolve.

Council believes adopting the Drysdale Urban Design Framework provides a strong policy basis for the rezoning of the land along Murradoc Road, up to the Drysdale Bypass route, to Commercial 2 zone. This affects both sides of Murradoc Road including on the south side two small rural holdings either side of Clarendon Road.

Below is the summary from the Council's agenda document which is in pdf format still and over 13mb in size.

Combined Amendment C283 Drysdale Urban Design Framework/Permit 1060/2013 McHarrys Buslines – Consideration of Submissions

Portfolio: Planning - Cr Heagney
Source Strategic Implementation
General Manager: Peter Bettess
Index Reference Subject – Council Reports 2014 - Application C283

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to enable Council to consider submissions to combined Planning Scheme Amendment C283 Drysdale Urban Design Framework and Planning Permit Application1060/2013 for McHarrys Buslines, 97-105 Murradoc Rd, Drysdale.

Summary

• Combined Amendment C283 and Permit 1060/2013 proposes to introduce a number of Ordinance and Zone changes to the Planning Scheme to reflect the recommendations of the adopted Drysdale Urban Design Framework (UDF) and enable McHarrys to establish a bus depot at 97-105 Murradoc Rd, Drysdale.
• The Drysdale UDF applies to the Drysdale town centre and immediately surrounding land. The Amendment updates the Municipal Strategic Statement, introduces Commercial 1 & 2 zones in Murradoc Road and Collins Street and applies new Design and Development Overlays over the town centre commercial areas to reflect the recommendations of the UDF.
• Permit 1060/2013 which accompanies the amendment would enable McHarrys to establish a new bus depot on a 1.2 hectare property (to be rezoned Commercial 2) at 97-105 Murradoc Road, Drysdale. This property is occupied by a detached house and some scattered vegetation.
• Amendment C283 was placed on public exhibition from 23 January 2014 until 24 February 2014. A total of nine submissions have been received of which six either support or offer no objection and three of which object to parts of the amendment and/or draft permit.
• Two submissions (one objecting) have been made about the provisions of the new Design and Development Overlays, in particular DDO33 as it applies to land at 26-32 Murradoc Road on which a new Coles supermarket is being proposed. These Overlays have received wide community acceptance and this report argues there is no justification for changes to be made to the exhibited provisions.
• There is one supporting submission and two objecting submissions to the McHarrys bus depot which essentially request that no permit issue. However given that the proposed Commercial 2 zoning of this part of Murradoc Road is consistent with the recommendations of the UDF, refusal of the permit would be difficult to justify. One of these submitters also objects to the proposed Commercial 2 zoning in Murradoc Road.
• In such circumstances where submissions are unable to be resolved, Council must refer them to an Independent Panel to be appointed by the Minister for Planning.

Recommendation

That Council having considered all submissions to Amendment C283 to the

Greater Geelong Planning Scheme resolves to:

1) Request the Minister for Planning appoint an Independent Panel under part 8 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987.

2) Refer all submissions to the Panel; and

3) Submit to the Panel its response to the submissions generally as outlined in this report.