THE failure of Fishers IGA to build a supermarket in Irymple has held back development of the town, it was claimed yesterday.
Woolworths has promised to start building its bigger neighbourhood centre within a year and finish it within two.
The only proviso is that Mildura Rural City Council allow planning changes and grant a permit to allow the work to proceed. The $15 million plans of Woolworths took centre stage on day four of a Planning Panels Victoria hearing which moved from Mildura to Melbourne yesterday.
Three more days of hearings are proposed so the tribunal can make a recommendation early next year to council on how to proceed.
Chris Canavan QC, lead barrister for Lascorp, developers of the Woolworths’ site on the corner of Sandilong Avenue and Fifteenth Street, said Irymple had been deprived of a neighbourhood centre.
He said Fishers IGA had held a permit to build a “second-tier supermarket” for six years but had failed to proceed. “It is not known when the Fishers development will proceed, if at all,” Mr Canavan said.
He said a good supermarket clearly provided a net community benefit. “It appears the only way we can be assured this would happen in a reasonable timeline is for the Lascorp proposal to proceed.”
He said Woolworths believed two supermarkets were supportable in Irymple.
“They probably should have had one already.”
He said the “location beauty contest” between the Fishers IGA and Woolworths proposals was indecisive and mattered little as both had advantages and disadvantages.
He said the Woolworths store would provide a greater community benefit than Fishers.
“The development will provide greater jobs and provide for future population growth,” Mr Canavan said.
Traffic engineer Henry Turnbull said the local roads were able to support the increased traffic in the area.
He disagreed with VicRoads which did not want vehicles turning right into Fifteenth Street as they left the proposed Woolworths development.
This would mean cars heading south, or back to Red Cliffs, would have to travel towards Mildura and then perform a U-turn at the Sandilong Avenue traffic lights.
“U-turns are not the best in terms of safety.”
Mr Turnbull said he believed it to be a “silly” requirement and the panel might wish to adopt a different recommendation to council.
He said delivery trucks clearly would not be able to do the U-turns at the traffic lights and would have to head further into Mildura.
Retail economist Anthony Dimasi (for Lascorp) said there was “lots of room” within Mildura for new supermarkets.
He said given the population growth and the current high trading levels of the existing supermarkets, the city could host a new supermarket every couple of years.
Mr Dimasi said the potential for supermarket development in Irymple was similar to developments which has occurred in Camperdown, Mooroopna, Yarrawonga and Ararat.
He said the proposals for two supermarkets at Irymple, and the new proposal for a Coles development opposite Centro Mildura in Fifteenth Street, would not impact on existing supermarkets at Mildura City Heart and Centro.
He agreed later under questioning from Jeremy Gobbo QC, for Fishers, the Foodworks supermarket in Red Cliffs would be “under pressure”.
Mr Dimasi said the Woolworths proposal would still proceed even if the Fishers IGA was to start construction in Irymple tomorrow.
He agreed with Mr Gobbo that Mildura had just experienced a long period of drought which had impacted on population growth and the local economy.
He also said the global financial crisis had hit economic growth.
Mr Dimasi said he agreed partially with a proposition from Mr Gobbo that a prudent operator such as Fishers would await a result from the planning panel before committing to a new development at Irymple.
“For whatever reason the residents are still missing out.”
Mr Gobbo argued that the impact of Woolworths on a Fishers development would be much greater than had been estimated.
“It won’t blow them out of the water, the impact will be less than you might think.”
Evidence will be presented to the panel today from Centro Properties after the Lascorp case concludes before Mr Gobbo presents witnesses for Fishers.
This article appeared in Tuesday's Sunraysia Daily 13/12/2011.
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