Fears commuters will use Kenmore shops upgrade to rat run
Residents fear a proposed new access to a popular Brisbane westside shopping centre will be used by commuters to avoid a notorious roundabout.
South West
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Commuters frustrated with delays at the notorious Kenmore Roundabout will use a proposed shopping centre access as a rat run, residents fear.
Spearwood Pl homeowners say their street is far too steep, narrow and winding to be used for through traffic, pointing out that there was an accident there only a few weeks ago.
Kenmore Village shopping centre owner Jen Retail Properties set tongues wagging in the inner-west area last month when it lodged a development application to demolish the centre’s ageing North Mall and rejig parking.
The plans were welcomed by most locals but a proposal to create a third access near the top of Spearwood Pl, presently a dead-end street, have sparked about 40 objections.
Councillor Greg Adermann, whose Pullenvale ward office is in Kenmore Village, has been working with Jen Retail Properties and residents on the new access proposal.
“While the planned upgrade of Kenmore Village is great news for the community, I agree with residents that the proposed new entry and exit via Spearwood Pl is an issue and I understand their concerns about the impact of additional traffic in their streets,’’ Cr Adermann said.
“I have received a number of emails to my ward office objecting to this proposal, so I wrote to the applicant requesting a meeting with them and a delegation of residents to discuss this issue.
“They agreed and I am in the process of arranging a meeting for next week.’’
Spearwood Pl couple, Tamara Bycroft and Christoph Heydrich, said the street was completely unsuitable for a large volume of traffic or for delivery trucks and other large vehicles.
“A car lost control and hit a tree only a few weeks ago,’’ Mr Heydrich said.
“The surface is not designed for traffic, it is too steep and too narrow.’’
Mr Heydrich, a civil engineer, said an S-bend halfway along the street limited sight lines and meant large vehicles encroached on the opposite lane as they negotiated the bend.
Ms Bycroft, who understood a similar access proposal had been rejected by Council in previous years, said she had been invited to the meeting with Jen Properties and a small group of residents to express their concerns.
She was worried commuters fed up with Kenmore Roundabout would use it to cut through the back of the shopping centre, similar to how motorists used streets around nearby Kenmore Plaza to avoid bottlenecks on Moggill Rd outside that shopping centre.
During lockdown, Covid testing queues at the Kenmore Village drive-through testing centre were so bad police sometimes had to be called to direct traffic.
The roundabout, and Moggill and Brookfield roads which feed into it, are choked during both morning and afternoon peaks and on Saturday mornings.
Jen Retail Properties was approached for comment.
It said in the DA documents that the access would generate up to 200 more car movements per day on the street.
“The proposed Spearwood Place access will provide a broader community benefit as a result of improvements to the traffic network and safe and direct emergency vehicle access, without introducing unacceptable amenity impacts for those residents of the street,’’ the development application documents said.
The centre upgrade would result in a smaller floor area which would likely cut overall car movements by up to 105 per day, the DA read.
The biggest improvement would be at the congested Brookfield Rd access, it said, as the new access would act as a “relief valve’’.
“On a typical day, it is anticipated that the new access will also primarily service a small portion of traffic from the residential catchment located to the west of the shopping centre (which has about 120 houses),’’ the DA documents said.
“This will reduce the number of vehicle movements at the primary Brookfield Rd access.
“The use of this new access is not expected to be significant on a day-to-day basis, as it is
located at the most remote part of the site from the primary parking fields and shopping centre building.’’
Neighbour Francis Rangichode, who has lived on the street for 31 years, lodged a submission strongly condemning the plan.
“We are aware that this has been tried before and Council did not grant access as they saw the traffic problems it was going to cause, not only to (Spearwood Pl) residents but to almost 200 or more families living in the estate on both Spearwood Pl and Mirbelia St,’’ he said.
“Traffic will bank up on Spearwood Pl, as well as Mirbelia St, and hold up people on Brookfield Rd.
“This may be a traffic solution to the shopping centre, but a traffic jam for the whole neighbourhood.
“The existing traffic problems are a creation of the bad planning of the shopping centre
management itself.
“They have got car parks in the front area where they hold traffic right up to the Kenmore
roundabout when people are backing out, and some customers are waiting to get a parking spot.’’
Other objectors said they had witnessed numerous near misses on Spearwood Pl.
They wrote that children who played on the street would be put at further risk and that delivery vans had to back down the street because they could not turn around at the top.
For more details on the upgrade, and to lodge a submissions, visit Council’s online development application portal developmenti and search for application A005856055
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