Woolworths has received another knock back in its long-running campaign to open a new supermarket and liquor store at Taren Point.
However, in its decision, the Sydney South Planning Panel said the Parraweena Road site would be suitable for a “dark store” – where online orders are packed and dispatched to customers.
The Woolworths proposal included such a facility, one of several planned by the company to counter the challenge from Amazon.
The supermarket giant’s application to have the Taren Point site rezoned to allow retail as well as existing industrial uses was rejected by the regional panel after an initial “no” from Sutherland Shire Council .
In a unanimous decision, the panel said the rezoning proposal should not be submitted for a Gateway determination by the Department of Planning and Environment because it had not demonstrated strategic merit.
The panel said the additional retail use would effectively disqualify the future use of the site from industrial and urban services use.
However, the panel said “the proposed Dark Store could be accommodated and could be an innovative use for the site within the current zoning”.
“The South District Plan is considered by the panel as the central district policy against which the proposal’s strategic merit must be assessed,” the panel said.
“The district plan observes there may be exceptional cases to support new retail centres on industrial land but such opportunities should be supported by a net community benefit test and in turn supported by a strategic review of centres and an industrial lands review.
“The panel was not satisfied the proposal meets the net community benefit test.
“The panel was also advised by council officers that council will be preparing a new LEP with the release of the new District Plan and that a strategic review of centres and industrial lands, including a review of retail space and appropriate locations, will form part of this work.”
The panel said it observed from the South District Plan the current nature of employment and urban services in the region was changing as technologies and new industries emerged, causing precincts to evolve into complex employment lands rather than “industrial lands”.
“Some precincts are under pressure to be converted to residential and other non-industrial uses,” the panel said.
“Proposals within the South District to convert industrial and urban service land to higher order uses including large format retail have largely not been supported and these lands have been retained for industrial and urban service uses.
“Further, the South District plan affirms that existing industrial and urban service land need to be retained and must be managed to protect businesses supporting the local economy and servicing the local population.”
The panel said Action 39 of the South District Plan required councils retain all industrial land from conversion to residential development, including mixed use zones.
”It is considered a retail outlet of this scale, which would attract significant custom, would provide better convenience and social interchange if it were located in an established centre with complementary uses,” the panel said.
