Final decision handed down on new Sydney Harris Farm outlet

A popular north shore garden nursery is set to welcome a new fresh food supermarket – despite some residents vowing to “boycott” the store due to concerns over impacts on nearby small traders.

A north shore garden nursery is set to welcome a new fresh food supermarket after Harris Farm was given the green light to open its next outlet in Turramurra.

Ku-ring-gai Council’s local planning panel has approved a $26.3 million development plan by Harris Farm to open a new store on the site of the Honeysuckle Garden centre at 45-47 Tennyson Ave and 105 Eastern Rd, Turramurra.

The store will become the sixth Harris Farm outlet on the north shore and will include a main supermarket along with a cafe, retail tenancies and takeaway food and drink options.

Other features include 109 carparking spaces, a native garden and a ‘log play’ area for the kids. The main supermarket will trade from 7am to 9pm, seven days per week.

A decision on the plan follows a protracted planning process which began in 2018 and included Harris Farm successfully applying to rezone the site through the Planning Department.

The store would be located on the corner of Tennyson Ave and Eastern Rd.

The council’s planning panel – in approving the project – said the development was acceptable in terms of the relevant provisions of planning laws and considered to be in the public interest.

A report by the planning stated the proposal had been through a “rigorous” planning process and was permissible under the site’s zoning.

An aerial view of the proposed store.

Some locals had raised concerns over the project’s potential impact on nearby small businesses in the Eastern Rd Shopping Centre, along with traffic impacts and noise.

Submissions from residents also flagged concerns over potential negative impacts on property prices, and fears the store could “attract people from outside the local area” into Turramurra.

Pamela Gardiner, who lives two doors down from the site, was among 63 residents who lodged a submission and said some people had called for the store to be “boycotted” in a sign of solidarity with the current small traders.

“I’m very upset about it – the traffic is going to make things very difficult and we’ve got four to five shops (on Eastern Rd) which is a healthy little shopping centre but what they’re adding more than doubles the retail space,” she said.

A concept plan of the store

“We don’t need the Harris Farm. It’s surplus to requirements and there’s also the impact of noise.

“Some residents are already saying they’ll never shop there and keep writing letters to the council to object to it.”

Ku-ring-gai Chamber of Commerce president Adrienne McLean said she had mixed thoughts about the proposal.

“There’s no doubt the impacts on the small shops on Eastern Rd are going to be major and I’m also disappointed the garden centre is going,” she said.

“But there are some residents who are saying they’re actually quite looking forward to the development because they’ll be able to get milk and bread in their pyjamas because it will be so close to their homes.

“Once it goes in, I think the community will probably find it’s quite convenient and end up shopping there.”

A concept plan of the store

The planning panel will determine the proposal next week.

The council planning panel report stated the proposed development was “of a scale which is commensurate with a neighbourhood centre”.

The report added that: “whether the proposal attracts people from outside the local area is a matter of local forces and is not relevant to the merits of the proposal”.

The store would include food and drink offerings.

In its plans, the company said the store would primarily serve a customer base from the surrounding area and “should benefit existing retailers” by increasing foot traffic.

Harris Farm said the store had been designed to evoke the setting of a country property or a rural paddock through features including an orchard where families could “relax and enjoy themselves under fruit trees’’.

“The proposal will generate positive social effects for the community by providing retail premises that will improve the quality, choice and convenience of services in the local area,” the plans stated.

“It will also generate additional employment prospects for the local area – many of them are likely to be filled by local residents.”

A petition in favour of the project was previously signed by more than 800 people while a social media group in opposition has gained 1100 followers.