COVID-19 delays Piedimonte’s Supermarket Fitzroy North mega retail and residential development
A controversial plan to transform Piedimonte’s Supermarket in Fitzroy North has been put on ice after a meeting, where more than 600 objectors were expected to attend, was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
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Piedimonte’s Supermarket’s planned mega retail and residential redevelopment in the heart of Fitzroy North has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Piedimonte’s wants to transform its Best St site into a seven-storey complex with 66 apartments, a three-level underground carpark, a refurbished supermarket, a rooftop terrace, a cafe and a bottle shop.
The proposed development will swallow all real estate within the Best St, Scotchmer St and Egremont St boundary.
A council owned laneway between Best St and Egremont St will also fall into Piedimonte’s hands, under the plans.
Heritage listed buildings, existing shops and not-for-profit art performance space The Motley Bauhaus will all go to accommodate the redevelopment.
Yarra Council received more than 600 objections to the project – believed to be a record -compared with eight submissions in support.
The objections include excessive height, extreme scale and density, loss of commercial diversity and “inappropriate precedent setting”.
Several Yarra councillors, community stakeholders and Melbourne state Greens MP Adam Bandt are all opposed to the development as it stands.
Fitzroy North Residents Action Group said it was not opposed to the redevelopment but the height should be capped at three storeys.
“(We) believe it’s necessary, and possible for developments to be sympathetic in scale and character to its environment which is a heritage area,” a spokesman said.
“We believe the council should apply the same protection measures to the Fitzroy Village that they have just last week adopted for the Queens Parade shopping village, namely a mandatory three-storey limit.”
Councillors were to debate the proposal in front of a “sellout crowd” at Fitzroy Town Hall tonight but the meeting was cancelled due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Councillors cannot vote unless they are at the meeting in person.
A Yarra Council spokesperson guarranteed via a phonecall that chief executive Vijaya Vaidyanath would not make a decision on the Piedimonte development.
The spokeperson confirmed the decision will be deferred indefinitely until council meetings can resume.
Nicholls Ward councillor Bridgid O’Brien said it was important the council “listened to the community”.
“I don’t see a great deal of community value (in the project),” she said.
“It’s really important we are respectful of the community and it’s submissions.
“We don’t want the community to be concerned they’re not being listened to.”
Langridge Ward Councillor Stephen Jolly said Piedimonte’s “needs to get real”.
“It’s their land, they have the right to develop but they’re going above and beyond what is acceptable,” he said.
“We don’t want to kill the goose which laid the golden egg … people live and come to the Fitzroy North village because it’s a quirky and unique.
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“My job is to protect the Fitzroy north community but in five years time we’re going to wreck Fitzroy North.”
“Others will want to develop their land but it won’t be seven (storeys) it will be eight, nine, we’ll end up with a mini-Docklands.”
Piedimonte’s was contacted for comment.
A Yarra Council report says the proposal should be approved with a reduced height of six-storeys.