Essendon’s Boundy’s supermarket ‘high quality’ 11-storey development refused

For generations, a family owned supermarket in Essendon has served the community. Now a controversial plan for its future has been decided.

Essendon’s skyline has been saved from a substantial change as plans to revive an old supermarket into a “high quality” yet controversial accommodation development were rejected.

An 11-storey proposal for mixed use and accommodation at 25-29 Keilor Rd, Essendon was been lodged with Moonee Valley Council.

The site, which used to be the old Boundy’s supermarket and car park, was sold in 2020 after being put on the market for the first time in 53 years.

The store closed during the pandemic in what was described as an “extremely difficult” decision.

“This was an extremely difficult decision to make but ultimately to remain viable, we have needed to consolidate our two stores,” the family posted on Facebook.

“We have thoroughly enjoyed serving our community, and thank you for your support, and hope to see you at our Buckley St store which will continue trading as usual.”

Current view of Keilor Rd site in Essendon. Picture: Moonee Valley Council

Cr Ava Adams - who moved the refusal - called the potential impacts of the development “unreasonable”.

“It’s a clear overdevelopment of the site and its surrounds,” she said.

“For me, the excessive height cannot be justified by the net community benefit ... I am actually fed up with applications in Buckley Ward that blatantly ignore height guidelines in our planning scheme.”

The development would have featured 110 dwellings including nine triple-storey townhouses and five per cent reserved for an NDIS provider. A supermarket and office space are expected to feature on-site.

Cr Cam Nation described the NDIS provision as an “afterthought” and joined Cr Adams in questioning the height limit. The development would have been 39 meters tall but the planning scheme preferred 21.

The proposal was subject to a consultation meeting between the applicant, objectors and Mayor Pierce Tyson and Cr Adams but according to the council, no resolution was made. Plans were amended with increased setbacks on the western boundary.

The meeting came after the development received 47 objections from 42 properties including complaints concerning the impact on neighbourhood character, overdevelopment of the suburb and construction impacts on residents, carparking and traffic.

Deputy Mayor Sam Byrne questioned the potential to bring more traffic into an area which is notoriously dangerous for motorists.

“North Essendon has recently been in the media for being a nightmare, I think everyone in this chamber agrees with that,” she said.

“Do we really want to be encouraging more cars to be going through that area ... I think we’ve got to be careful with how many cars we encourage into an area like that because we don’t want them.”