PLANS for a 24-hour fast food restaurant and convenience store at Safety Beach have been knocked back for a second time by Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors.
Councillors last week took turns emphasising to a packed public council meeting that they believed the proposal would increase existing traffic problems and lead to “anti-social behaviour” and vandalism on the beach opposite.
Council’s original refusal to grant a permit in September 2020 was subsequently upheld by the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in November 2021.
This time around, council officers considered the proposal “acceptable” as it had been amended to include changes recommended by VCAT. However, councillors and at least 565 objectors did not agree. The report by principal planner Graham Scott, presented at the council’s Wednesday 14 August public meeting, recommended approving the plan subject to ten pages of conditions. Protesters at a public meeting in June condemned the second application (Fast food franchise still a hot topic, The News 25/6/24).
Cr Debra Mar, who last week moved that council refuse the extra uses on the BP service station site at the corner of Marine Drive and Nepean Highway, said the plan was unacceptable because it made the intersection dangerous for motorists, motorcyclists, e-scooter riders, cyclists and pedestrians. Increasing the amount of traffic would create road rage. “I cannot imagine the angst this development has placed on our residents and corresponding neighbourhoods, and is mostly likely impacting on their health and wellbeing,” Mar said after several objectors had voiced their concerns to the meeting. She said hamburgers, ice creams, meals and “excellent coffee” were already available from businesses within walking distance of the service station. “If you want to experience food from a fast food restaurant people have options at Mornington or Rosebud,” Mar said.
Motorists would be tempted to use the Dromana Early Learning Centre and Kindergarten’s car park “and dart across a busy intersection to get to the store”. The development could encourage anti-social behaviour on the beach across the road, including damage to beach boxes “particularly at night”. “You only have to look what happened at Rosebud and what’s happened to the beach boxes over the road from the take-away fast food restaurant there.” “All these concerns weigh heavily on my conscience. I care about my community and the way they go about their daily business and how they live in place.” Mar said it was time developers “did more initial research to understand the identity and character of our townships and considered the consequences before they submit an application such as this”.
Cr Antonella Celi had “dealt with residents living near service stations built in residential areas and the impact on the amenity and their health and wellbeing is real and palpable to the point they have to, sadly, move away from the area that they loved”. “This location could become a blackspot, that means road crashes and death counts. No thank you.”
Cr Sarah said the traffic plan for the intersection was “absolutely bonkers”. “I used to regularly drive from Tootgarook to Mount Martha and what I saw then was quite alarming. To put in a fast food restaurant at that intersection just blows my mind,” she said. “I can’t see how this can result in anything but [it becoming a] blackspot or grid locked.”
Cr Susan Bissinger said the developers had addressed concerns raised by VCAT “but that road is a nightmare as it is now … add more cars and you’ve got a real problem”. “We need a traffic management plan for this whole area. It can’t handle any more traffic.”
Cr Despi O’Connor said the Marine Drive/Nepean Highway intersection was “the most complex T-intersection on the peninsula. I’ve never seen one like it.”
Cr Anthony Marsh, previously a resident of Safety Beach, saw the intersection as “an absolute disaster” and thought it appalling that the state government “would not touch it” until it was declared a blackspot. “These are the battles that need to be fought and are worth fighting for,” Marsh said. If VCAT eventually supports the plan “the state can then explain, if someone does get killed at that intersection, why they thought that this was okay, and they can’t refer to a council decision and say that [the shire] supported it”.
The mayor Cr Simon Brooks, a councillor when the fast food plan was first refused and a 45-year resident of Dromana, was “well aware of the intersection and its problematic aspects”. He said traffic infrastructure in Dromana had not changed since 1970, while the population of Safety Beach and Dromana had increased by “four or five times” and he could not support the development when faced with an inferior road network.
First published in the Mornington News – 20 August 2024
