Box Hill childcare: third centre planned for Station St causes traffic concerns

Neighbours are fighting plans for a 122-place childcare centre on a busy Box Hill North road — where two other creches are also being built.

The double-storey centre would cater for 122 children.

A plan for a double-storey childcare centre on a busy Box Hill North road — where two other centres are being built — has neighbours worried.

Apex Town Planning wants to demolish two houses at 902 and 904 Station St, Box Hill North, and replace them with a 122-place childcare centre opposite Paisley Street Playground and Reserve.

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The plan includes on-site parking for 26 cars.

An artist’s impression of the new double-storey centre.

The planning application states up to 20 staff would be employed at the centre, which would likely be open from 6.30am until 7pm.

It notes that kerbside carparking is unrestricted along Station St near the proposed location.

Neighbours have taken to Facebook community groups to air concerns about traffic congestion in Station St and surrounding streets, and urging others to file objections to the plans with Whitehorse Council.

Two houses would be demolished to make way for the centre.

Multiple Box Hill North residents said they were worried how the increased traffic flow would impact neighbouring streets, which were narrow and often packed with parked cars.

One resident pointed out that parents avoiding unloading their kids from cars on busy Station St would likely push congestion towards Dane and Richard streets.

Another said traffic on Station St would worsen with parents and children constantly using a pedestrian crossing to access the centre.

Others pointed to the two childcare centres already under construction on Station St — at 757 Station St, Box Hill and at 800 Station St, Box Hill North — and questioned if the demand for the creches justified the inconvenience they would cause residents.