Woolworths under fire as trees cleared for new Upper Coomera store
Residents have reacted with fury after heavy machinery began work to make way for a controversial new Woolworths store on the Gold Coast. FULL DETAILS
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LOCAL residents have reacted with dismay after site works began this week to clear the way for a supermarket development first approved in 2015.
Heavy machinery moved onto a site on Brygon Creek Drive in Upper Coomera on Monday, tearing down trees to make way for a new Woolworths, ten smaller stores and 200 car parks.
The development, adjacent to the entrance to the 1922-pupil Upper Coomera State College, will be the fourth Woolworths in the area when completed. The supermarket giant already operates outlets at the Coomera Square Centre on Old Coach Rd, at Oxenford Village on Cottonwood Pl and at the Coomera Town Centre.
Local resident Virginia Leighton-Jackson said she was “so angry” to see work beginning on the new development.
“I don’t want a Woolies one street over from me,” she said. “And the traffic is already stupid through this section. ... Poor animals – they are clearing right during nesting season.”
Planning documents reveal the developer, a Woolworths subsidiary called Fabcot Pty Ltd, had been granted permission for the removal of 60 “protected trees” to make way for the development, while 42 were to be retained.
A fauna spotter-catcher was to be present during site-clearing operations.
“So many trees getting cut down,” another resident, Belinda Lemos said. “How many supermarkets does one area need? It’s ridiculous.”
An application for the development was first lodged with council on 19 December 2013.
The development was approved the following March but appealed to the Planning and Environment Court by developers of rival centres, including the Coomera Town Centre.
The court gave the project the go-ahead, with conditions, in February 2016.
In July last year the developer applied for a four-year extension to the development approval, which was due to expire on 11 August this year.
“The site is affected by environmental significance overlay mapping,” council planners assessing the extension application wrote.
“The area of the environmental significance overlays is also identified in the State Development Assessment Mapping System as ‘Core koala habitat area’.
“Council’s Environmental Assessment officers determined that the extension application could not be supported from an Environmental Planning perspective based on the mapped environmental values over the subject site.”
However the planners noted that the proposed tree-clearing was consistent with previous approvals and granted a 12-month extension to the planning approval.
Vegetation clearing at the site is expected to be finished by the end of next week, with construction work on the supermarket to begin in mid 2023.
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Originally published as Woolworths under fire as trees cleared for new Upper Coomera store
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