Milton could soon be having its own Coles Local at Milton Village on Baroona Road but some local residents aren’t particularly excited about the proposal.
Coles Group Property Developments Limited has sought approval to upgrade and extend Milton Village Shopping Centre to accommodate the establishment of a Coles Local and a Liquorland bottle shop. The proposed development at 36 Baroona Road will be three storeys high with a maximum height of around 11.7 metres.
Coles Local is the ‘mini’ version of the Coles supermarket which adopts the local store concept and tailor fits its offerings according to the needs of the community that it serves.
IGA out, Coles Local in
If approved, the development will replace some of the existing tenancies, including IGA Supermarket, to make way for the supermarket extension. Also, the car parking areas located along Baroona Road and within the rear service area will have their capacity reduced to 43 (from the existing 58 spaces) and 8 (from 17 spaces), respectively.
The space currently occupied by IGA will be extended and will involve the centre’s Ground Level and Level 1. The Level 1 extension will contain the mezzanine section for Coles and additional spaces intended for new commercial tenancies.
The mezzanine, which can be accessed by an internal stairwell, will be reserved for the store employees where there will be amenities, office space, food preparation areas, cold rooms and storage areas.
A majority of the existing shopping centre’s built form and specialty tenancies, as well vehicle access from Baroona Road and Wight Street will remain. The developer also does not propose changes to the access or configuration of the servicing bay, instead, a dock hoist is proposed to be installed to make servicing and delivery activities easier and efficient.
Do Milton residents want a Coles Local?
Council has already received quite a number of submissions regarding the lodged application. Whilst few residents welcome the idea of Coles in the area, an overwhelming majority of submissions reflect the locals’ opposition to the proposal.
Many of the submissions say that other nearby Coles supermarkets already exist, hence, a Milton location is not needed. To most, the current IGA already offers a great variety of goods and its longer operating hours provide better shopping convenience.
Others also raised concerns about the reduced parking spaces, traffic and pedestrian safety, the bulk and scale of the development and its impact on the existing small businesses and shopping diversity in the area.
“I do not believe this new development will service the needs of the local community, IGA and the other businesses provide local products and services with extended opening hours that can not be met by a mega corporation.” – Anonymous
“The proposal height is not sympathetic to the local area. Whilst I appreciate that developments are inevitable there is no reason it can’t be in keeping with the local area. There are so many larger alternatives to Coles nearby, eg. Coles at Toowong, Woolworths at Paddington, Coles at the Barracks. With these options there is no need for a larger grocery option at Milton Village.” – Anonymous
“The intersection at Baroona and Milton roads is poorly designed, and will become increasingly unsafe for pedestrians as traffic increases. There is no safe crossings for pedestrians to cross Baroona to the other side of the road.” – Anonymous
“Reducing the available parking and increasing the size of the shop will make this already congested and at times dangerous area worse.” – Anonymous
“The replacing of the current IGA with a Coles contributes to the lack of shopping diversity for Milton Village. Coles is proposing to increase its footprint and develop a larger section of the Village than currently the IGA occupies. This will naturally result in many small businesses in the Village leaving. This will result in people in the local area having to travel further for these services.” – Anonymous
Meanwhile, the Urbis assessment report, underscored the following key points of the proposal:
- The proposed centre upgrades provide a positive contribution to the Milton neighbourhood and wider Brisbane area through improvements to Milton Village.
- The proposed development represents a contemporary architectural design that will improve activation and surveillance of Baroona Road.
- The proposed changes to the car parking areas and vehicle access arrangements will significantly enhance safety for vehicles and pedestrians.
- The upgrades and enhancements to the existing service arrangements, including the addition of screen planting in the road reserve will significantly enhance the presentation of the development from Wight Street.
- The development does not result in any impacts that will significant or undue adverse impacts on surrounding land uses or the envisaged street environment. The design of the proposal has been tailored to its location and is of a built form and scale appropriate to the surroundings and which is not likely to impact adversely on surrounds.
