Century-old gravesite won’t affect Logan Reserve shopping complex or child care centre

A century-old gravesite will not be affected when a suburbandrive-through fast food outlet, shopping complex and child care centre are built next door.

A developer has redrawn and scaled back a proposed suburban shopping complex to increase the size of a child care centre, both to be built on land metres from a century-old graveyard.

Developer Logan Reserve Central said the newly reconfigured plans would not affect two culturally significant graves on an adjoining block housing the historic Logan Reserve Irish Catholic Cemetery.

The child care centre was increased in size to take advantage of the area’s reputation as “nappy valley” after a baby boom hit in 2019.

A small grave plot at Logan Reserve. PHOTO: Courtesy of David Horton and Kerry Raymond

The cemetery, on a narrow paddock at 296A Logan Reserve Rd, was opened in 1865 along with the first Catholic Church and school in the area.

It is believed to be the final resting place for members of the Moloney family and John Gavan who owned the property before handing over 4000 sqm cemetery land to the church in 1865.

The school buildings and majority of graves were moved from the site to Beaudesert in 1983.

An aerial view of the shopping complex site in red with Arcare to the right and the 3.8m cemetery land between the complex and a proposed housing estate at the bottom of the photo.

The shopping complex site, next door to Arcare Aged Care home and opposite Halcyon Rise, an over 50s lifestyle village, is in an emerging community zone for low-density residential development.

Original plans, approved by Logan City Council in 2018, were for a 3440 sqm IGA supermarket and included a 460 sqm child care centre.

The original design included more than 14 tenancies and a large IGA supermarket and a child care centre, which was first 460 sqm and then increased in size to 746 sqm.

But developers last month decided to scale back the supermarket and increase the size of the child care centre from 460 sqm to 746 sqm to cater for the area’s baby booming population.

The new plans now include a 280 sqm drive-through fast food outlet, expected to operate from 7am to 10pm; three shops of about 200 sqm each and five commercial tenancies.

Architects have left space for 121 carparks including three disabled bays.

The new plan for the complex has three main buildings and contains a larger child care centre to the right.

The town planning document, filed with Logan council in April, shows the neighbourhood centre could include room for health care services and, under the planning rules, a betting shop.

Documents submitted to the council also included a town planning report by Saunders Havill Group which showed a section of the site, in the southeastern corner, would be developed at a later stage and the child care centre would proceed under a different proposal.

The report said a one-storey building had been “deliberately located” parallel to the southern boundary and would mitigate potential impacts from the centre on a residential development called The Verge.

A small grave plot at Logan Reserve

Saunders Havill said a 3.8m wide strip of land housing the cemetery, as well as a 1.8m timber fence along the full boundary, was considered appropriate for delivering a buffer between the housing estate and the shopping centre.

The report, which will be considered by the council before approval is granted, also found the 1.48 hectare project ticked all assessment benchmarks and was appropriate for the locality.

Logan City Council cracked down on the sizes of supermarket and shopping centre developments in 2019 when it ruled out an extension to the Holmview Central Shopping Complex, claiming it would adversely affect nearby centres.

Originally published as Century-old gravesite won’t affect Logan Reserve shopping complex or child care centre