Belrose Christmas shop on Forest Way: Council wants to stop it going ahead
Council planners want to stop a Christmas warehouse, selling trees, tinsel and festive lights being built on the northern beaches.
Manly
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“It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas” … but not on the northern beaches where the local council wants to halt a bid to build a colourful warehouse shop that sells tinsel, trees and other yuletide trinkets.
Council officers have recommended to planners that the Christmas retail outlet, proposed for a former residential block at Belrose be knocked back because its does not fit in with the “desired future character of the area”.
A development application to build what is classified as a “bulky goods warehouse” at 194 Forest Way, opposite the Glenaeon retirement Village, will go before a public hearing at the planning panel’s next meeting on Wednesday.
The panel will then make a recommendation to the council’s planning director for determination.
But in its Assessment Report to the planning panel, council officers said the DA for the 2247 sqm site should be refused.
The officers stated that the proposed development was an “inappropriate land use for the locality”.
They also said that the one-storey “industrial-style building”, with underground carparking, which proposes to sell natural and plastic Christmas trees as well as Christmas decorations and lights, was “of a disproportionate bulk and scale to surrounding buildings and therefore fails to respect the desired future character of the area.”
It would be open all year round, but operate seven days a week during “Christmas season” — October to January.
The report also pointed out that Transport for NSW had concerns about traffic safety and the location of the basement car park.
One of the applicants for the DA, Malcolm Dawes, has been contacted for comment.
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