VCAT Must Love Coldstream

PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT LIST

VCAT REFERENCE NO. P3315 2009

PERMIT APPLICATION NO. YR – 2009/676

To use and develop land adjacent to the former Coldstream railway station for a rural store that provides agricultural products and seeds to farmers. The development includes a portable building to be used for an office and the remainder of the land would be used for the storage of agricultural products.

Council opposed this application largely on the basis that it is an office. In accordance with the third strategic planning direction above, offices are best located in an existing commercial centre. If the use was an office, or a retail premises, I would be in agreement with Council. An office or a retail premises would in my view, be inappropriate in an isolated location, remote from other commercial enterprises and outside the urban boundary of the township.

# However, in my view it is not an office, but a rural store. It is appropriate to locate such uses in rural areas rather than in urban commercial centres. The use requires large turning circles to accommodate heavy trucks. It also needs to have convenient access to farming properties in Yarra Ranges and Moorabool. This site provides that accessibility, given its proximity to both the Maroondah Highway and the Melba Highway. Coldstream is located within the broadacre farming area, and is in close proximity to the intensive farming areas shown on the rural farming areas map in clause 21.04.

# The second ground for Council’s refusal is the contention that the use is inconsistent with the inclusion of the land in the public use zone (transport). Council submitted that only uses directly associated with transport should be permitted to locate in this zone. I find that this is a particularly narrow interpretation of the purpose of the zone. It is like saying that only dwellings should be located in the residential 1 zone, or only shops should be located in the Business 1 Zone.

# One of the zone purposes is to provide for uses that are consistent with the intent of the public land reservation, that being transport. In my view, the storage and redistribution of bulky materials is entirely consistent with the zoning of the land for transport. There are many examples of the synergistic co-location of transport infrastructure and storage. One example is the co-location of freight companies around the Port of Melbourne. Another example is the relocation of many large storage and freight companies and distribution warehouses in close proximity to the Western Ring Road. Many freight companies seek to take advantage of the easy access to the freeway network. Transport, storage and distribution are part of the same general activity.

Geoff Rundell

Member

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