COURT AGAIN UPHOLDS CITY'S RETAIL VISION FOR GREEN SQUARE

The proposed development was for a five storey building within the industrial area of Alexandria (opposite "Dan Murphy's"), including a large supermarket, 10,000 square metres of specialty retail floor space and commercial offices.

The City successfully argued that such a "big box" retail development in that location would compromise strategic plans for they area by undermining the viability of planned retail centres in Green Square and at the Ashmore Estate.

This decision follows the Court's previous judgement in March that upheld the City's refusal of a major retail development directly opposite the planned Green Square Town Centre, on the "Gazcorp" site at 296-298 Botany Road, Alexandria.

The Court judgement relied on the City's Green Square and Southern Areas Retail Study 2008, which outlines a retail hierarchy to complement the Green Square Town Centre. The Court found that "the strategic planning context was critical to the consideration and determination of this application" and that Council's strategy documents were "in the public interest" and "important policy".

The Court also found that a major retail facility was not appropriate in an intact industrial area and would affect the objective of retaining strategic industrial areas for employment purposes. It noted that "approval of a development that is inconsistent with the fundamentals of the existing strategic planning framework and would make it difficult to oppose further developments that are also inconsistent with that framework".