Macedon Ranges Shire Council has slammed plans for a Calder Freeway service centre at Woodend and will join petitioners to fight it.
Plans include three fast-food restaurants with drive-throughs, 174 parking bays for cars/trucks/caravans, internally-illuminated signage, and construction of two new on/off freeway ramps.
Woodend residents have launched a campaign and petition to stop the application, which comes just four years after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal rejected a similar proposal.
MRSC confirmed it had received two recent planning permit applications (PLN/2023/352 and PLN/2023/353), which were seeking approval for service centres at two sites on the Calder Freeway. Both sites are located about 900 metres north of Romsey Road, Woodend.
Applicant Welsh Leisure has appealed the western proposal PLN/2023/353 at VCAT as the council did not determine a decision within the required 60-day timeframe.
MRSC said the delay was due to outstanding documents with formal advice from the Department of Transport and Planning. The council viewed these documents as key information required to assess the application.
COUNCIL SAYS ‘NO’
In its objection, council said the design “fails to give appropriate consideration to the built form impacts on significant view lines to Hanging Rock and Mount Macedon and from the Calder Freeway”.
They said this was contrary to multiple clauses in the planning scheme that sought to ensure that development visually protected and enhanced these landscape values.
MRSC stated the development would not maintain view lines of state-significant landscape features and would undermine significant sequences of views to Mount Macedon and the Macedon Ranges, contrary to Statement of Planning Policy.
Council also said the proposal was a “poor response” to the purpose of the Farming Zone, and would result in permanent change in the land use. Wastewater treatment was also flagged.
The proposal would also result in a permanent and unplanned change in land use within an investigation area for Woodend.
MRSC said the plan was an “unacceptable response” to the requirements of the freeway service centre guidelines including: location, proximity to existing service centres, adverse impacts of an expansive build, lack of detail about signage, and failure to provide an architectural outcome that makes a positive contribution to the setting.
COMMUNITY FIGHT STRONG
A group of objectors that formed to fight the proposal said they were relieved that the council had refused the application.
One of those objectors, Karen Hunt, said residents had less than two weeks to lodge their objections to VCAT and worked quickly to inform people about the proposal. They distributed flyers and information, and created a petition that had gained more than 1200 signatures.
“We all agreed that, after fighting a previous application by in 2020 for another service centre about 1km north of this site, which was refused by both council and VCAT, we had to respond to this application in the strongest possible terms,” she said.
“Although this has drawn us together, we also feel let down that we have to continually fight these developers who have absolutely no awareness or feelings for our local areas and think they can just bully their way into ruining our landscape in order to make a buck.
“This service centre offers absolutely no benefits to locals, takes away visitors to our town, puts our beautiful environment at risk of contamination and will destroy valuable farmland with a needless development.
“In the meantime the battle to preserve our beautiful rural environment continues.”
The formal notice period for the application now has closed.
VCAT will hold a compulsory conference on April 8, a major cases hearing will take place from June 30 to July 7.
