Last chance to stop Kenmore childcare centre
A childcare centre proposal on Moggill Rd is raising concerns about traffic impacts on the nearby roundabout. But your chance to have a say ends soon.
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Kenmore residents have only a week left to raise their voices about a proposed childcare centre which some say will worsen the already diabolic Kenmore roundabout.
Capital Transactions Pty Ltd announced the plan in March, about the time Council and the Federal Government revealed a joint initiative to upgrade the roundabout, which is choked with traffic in peak hour.
The childcare centre, at 1075-179 Moggill Rd, would have 125 children when full.
Access would be via Moggill Rd, left in and left out only.
Councillor Greg Adermann (Pullenvale) urged locals to make a submission before the August 19 closing date.
“All feedback received by Council is considered as part of the assessment process and I thank everyone who has already taken the time to make a submission,’’ Cr Adermann said.
“There is still about one more week to make a submission and I encourage anyone who has any concerns about the proposal to make a submission so their voice can be heard and their feedback taken on board throughout the assessment process.’’
Capital Transactions called a “stop the clock’’ in May, for 60 days, after the State Assessment and Referral Agency lodged an information request on the project the previous month.
SARA officials said they had concerns about the potential impact of extra traffic on Moggill Rd and indicated their support instead for access via Cedarleigh Rd, with which the project site also shares a boundary.
Consultants Cardno recently responded to SARA’s concerns with a revised traffic assessment report which claimed there would be only a 1.5 per cent impact on Moggill Rd in the afternoon peak and 5.4 per cent in the morning peak.
“While the delay impact does not exceed 5 per cent during the PM peak, it is acknowledged that the delay impact slightly exceeds 5 per cent during the AM peak,’’ Cardno said.
“However, while the AM peak exceeds the (SARA) threshold by 0.4 per cent, this is not considered to be a significant impact.’’
Some furious Kenmore residents begged to differ, however.
Catherine Lawrence lodged a submission which said Moggill Rd was the only access to the CBD and was “one of the slowest roads into the city in the morning/outbound later in
the day’’.
“Around Kenmore there are two schools (Our Lady of the Rosary and Kenmore State School) with associated extensive local car usage, which exacerbates the traffic congestion,’’ she said.
“I cannot believe anyone would imagine that the addition of a childcare centre on this already busy road would be sensible.
“This would be unsafe for motorists, unsafe for cyclists (this is close to a known black-spot for cyclists, with a ‘white bike’ nearby), dangerous for pedestrians, and a ridiculous addition to the already extensive road usage.
“The area is exceptionally well-served by childcare centres already including the nearby kindergarten, Montessori school, and recent new childcare facilities in Brookfield.
“The potential traffic and carparking issues associated with the development will be catastrophic.’’
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Another resident pointed out that the latest Census data showed there were 700 existing childcare places in Kenmore/Indooroopilly but only 1080 children aged two to four.
Capital Transactions’ development application pointed out that the centre had been broken into two “pods’’ with pitched roofs to ensure it fitted into the character of surrounding houses and had generous setbacks.
Site coverage had been greatly reduced, from 43 per cent to 31 per cent, which was well below the allowable site coverage for a residential home.
Cr Adermann said that as part of Council’s assessment, traffic and safety was seriously considered and traffic reports were completed.
“Moggill Rd is a state-controlled road and in June 2019 the State Department of Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning advised the applicant — as part of pre-lodgement advice — that to ensure ongoing safety and efficiency on Moggill Rd the Department did not support access from Moggill Rd,’’ Cr Adermann said.
“Council was concerned about the impacts this proposed development could have on residential amenity and issued an information request to the applicant in April.
“Council requested they revise the design, bulk and scale of the proposed centre.
“In response the applicant submitted new building designs which will now be reviewed by Council planning officers.
“There is no doubt Moggill Rd is an incredibly congested State-controlled road and I am extremely conscious of doing everything we can in our capacity at Council to ensure this congestion does not unnecessarily worsen.’’