[your name]

[your address]

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Planning Assessment Officer,

Redlands City Council.

damailbox@redland.qld.gov.au

Senior Planning Officer

City Planning and Assessment

Redland City Council

PO Box 21, Cleveland QLD 4163

 

Council Ref: MCU19/0142

 

Address:Birkdale Fair Shopping Centre 2-12 Mary Pleasant Drive Birkdale Qld 4159

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Subject: Submission against a Development application for Food and drink outlet, shop, health care service, indoor sport and recreation and reconfiguring a lot

 

 

 

We have a number of concerns about the proposed development for a 24 hour McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant and the impact it will have on the amenity and character of the surrounding area with regards to the proposed operating hours, increased noise and light pollution, increased traffic on local roads, lack of additional on-site car parking, the proposed design and lack of appropriate landscape buffers.

 

 

We object to the proposed development for the following reasons:

 

Proposed 24 hour operation and design of the McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant

 

We note that the subject site is located in the District Centre Zone and A01.1 of the District Centre Zone Code advises that hours of opening should be limited to 6am to midnight in order to maintain a reasonable level of amenity for nearby land in residential zones. Purpose (k) of the District Centre Zone Code advises that development minimises adverse impacts on the residential amenity of the surrounding neighbourhood. Purpose (j) of the District Centre Zone Code advises that car parking and servicing areas are generally located behind or beside buildings and do not visually dominate the centre.

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The proposed McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant is located on the corner of Birkdale Road and Mary Pleasant Drive which is directly opposite residential properties. The drive-through facility has been provided on the outside face of the building adjacent to Birkdale Road and Mary Pleasant Drive which will have increased amenity impacts on nearby residential properties with respect to noise and headlight glare.

We note that Section 3.4.1.3 of the Strategic Framework does not identify District centres as being appropriate to accommodate night time activities. The hierarchy of centres identifies that night times activities should be more appropriately provided in the Principal centres of Cleveland and Capalaba which is more consistent with community expectations and especially the expectations of residents who live adjacent to District Centres. We are of the view that due to the location of the proposed McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant, the hours of operation should be limited to the acceptable solution only.

 

We note that the proposed design of the McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant does not comply with the following benchmarks in the District Centre Zone Code:

• _PO8 which requires that buildings are designed to be pedestrian focussed and allow for easy and unobstructed movement between the footpath and buildings. It is noted that the building is surrounding by a drive-through facility and car parking. There is no pedestrian entrance to the building visible from Mary Pleasant Drive or the corner of the site.

• _PO12 which requires that buildings are oriented to the street rather than internal spaces or car parking areas. It is noted that the proposed building has been specifically designed to turn its back on the street due the location of the drive-through facility with the main entrance accessed from the car park. There is no pedestrian entrance to the building visible from Mary Pleasant Drive or the corner of the site.

•   PO23/AO23.1 which requires a 3m wide landscape buffer be provided along a boundary with a residential zone. The proposed landscape buffer is only 1.2m wide in most locations along Birkdale Road and Mary Pleasant Drive which further exacerbates design and amenity issues.

 

We note that an alternative design could have provided the drive-through facility on the other side of the building so that the drive-through facility is not visible from the road and would have prevented cars circulating around the building which would have reduced the impacts of the proposed development on nearby residential properties. This would have allowed the provision of a 3m wide landscape buffer and provided a building that has been designed to address and activate the street with pedestrian entrances provided from the footpath.

Alternatively, we believe that McDonalds could have converted an existing tenancy in the Birkdale Fair Shopping Centre to a Food and drink outlet and avoided any impact on residential amenity and fully complied with the requirements of Redland City Plan 2018.

We do not believe that the applicant has demonstrated overwhelming planning need to override the requirements of the Redland City Plan 2018 in order to justify that a 24 hour McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant should be located in this particular location adjacent to residential properties and not comply with the acceptable solution for opening hours and the other design considerations in the District Centre Zone Code.

 

 

Lack of proposed additional carparking for Birkdale Fair Shopping Centre

 

The Traffic Impact Assessment submitted with the development application advises that based on the car parking rates in the Redland City Plan 2018, the proposed development for the McDonalds Fast Food Restaurant and the medical centre should provide 77 additional car parking spaces.

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The report identifies that Birkdale Fair currently provides 308 car parking spaces, however it is only proposed to increase the number of car parking spaces at the Birkdale Fair to a total of 315 car parking spaces, which is an increase of only 7 spaces. We have been advised that it is already difficult for residents to find car parking spaces in peak periods.

An increase of only 7 spaces appears to be totally inadequate for District Shopping Centre located adjacent to residential properties. It is likely that the additional 7 carparking spaces would be taken up by employees of McDonalds and the medical centre which results in no actual increase of customer parking for the two proposed uses that can generate substantial amounts of traffic. We believe that the lack of additional on-site car parking could increase the need for on-street carparking on nearby residential streets for customers and employees of the Birkdale Fair Shopping Centre which will impact upon the amenity of nearby residential properties. We are also concerned that the lack of additional car parking will create additional traffic movements and congestion at the driveway entrances along Mary Pleasant Drive for customers trying to find car parking spaces which will further impact nearby residential properties.

 

We note that no information has been provided to justify the assumption in the Traffic Impact Assessment that approximately 70% of the McDonalds trade will come via the drive-through which is given as the justification for requesting a 50% reduction in the car parking requirement for McDonalds..

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If 70% of the trade for McDonalds does come via the drive-through, the in-appropriate location of the drive-through and lack of landscaping combined with the proposed 24 hours operation, will further exacerbate amenity impacts on nearby residential properties and does not seem justified in this instance.

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We also note that the proposed medical centre would block the existing service bays at the rear of the Shopping Centre and the Traffic Impact Assessment has not indicated how AV’s will access the site and be able to turn around in the new, restricted service bay area which could lead to further conflicts and traffic issues on the site..

 

Thank you for taking the time to read the above submission. If you require any further information or wish to discuss the issues raised in the submission in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

 

 

Yours sincerely