An application to build a $100 million Woolworths shopping complex and aged care facility at an isolated site on the southern outskirts of Cooroy, with no frequent or reliable public transport, has created considerable debate in the community and about 200 formal submissions to Council.
The application includes a “full line” supermarket, 12 specialty shops, a post mailbox service and a 120-bed aged care facility,
Woolworths, holds a dominating 67 per cent market share of the Australian supermarket landscape with Coles, and together often cited as being a duopoly. The Australian Consumer & Competition Commission (ACCC) recently found that the “big two” hold significant numbers of undeveloped sites, with Woolworths having the bulk at 110 lots compared to 42 held by Coles.
The ACCC reiterated concerns that there is far less competition here than overseas, with very few major players, making the sector oligopolistic. Together, they have significant market prices control and output, often leading to limited competition.
Woolworths says it will deliver long-term benefits, provide more shopping options, generate jobs and that it would be a boon to the region, while others say that the proposal could harm the Cooroy Town Centre’s businesses and worsen traffic.
Woolworths argued that their existing supermarkets in Maleny and Mullumbimby had faced similar community concerns about the village environment and harm to local business, but did not mention that both stores were virtually in the town centre or nearby (200m), or that they had no associated specialty shops or traffic issues.
So, who is right?
Woolworths have painted a nice, rosy spin on the project and even conducted their own community consultation exercise on matters such as a convenient shopping location, easy access, shaded parking, village-style architecture and support for residential aged care etc., “to make sure they get the project right”.
I see an entirely different picture and it’s not very pretty.
Woolworths seem to have missed the existing dynamics, social and rural fabric, interacting intimacies and historic village feel of the town, the existing traffic choke point at the railway bridge and the anticipated traffic and aesthetic impacts of the proposal.
Is this the predicted killing of Cooroy that previous Mayor Tony Wellington suggested in his article titled “Could this retail giant be a “village killer” by killing a town with apathy, self-interest, bad planning plus a heavy-hitting developer with very deep pockets?
The proposal looks like other suburban Woolworths stores or their out-of-town stores throughout Australia, and with a massive shaded carpark. Nothing historic or village like about that. The Palm Lake Resort development at the northern outskirts of Cooroy involved a large chunk of land (12 ha) and is said to have given the shopping and commercial precinct a major business boost, but aerial photography shows a packed sardine can of housing with little if any landscaping.
Not content with a free-standing supermarket, Woolworths threw in some 12 specialty shops and a post box mail centre within an area of 22,367 sq metres, seeking to increase their market share in non-food areas and siphon off whatever business they can from the Cooroy Retail and Commercial precinct.
The NeuBau Group in applying for a proposed a Coles supermarket in Palmwoods (currently listed for appeal) has specifically chosen to exclude specialty shops in the design to provide the choice, convenience, and competition of a full-line supermarket without detracting from other retail offerings within the Palmwoods town centre.
Woolworths assessed that there are no other suitable sites of size available. That is understandable, given that their proposal is 3.6 times the site area of their Tewantin store and 4.2 times the site area of their Maleny Store. Woolworths could get rid of the specialty shops and mail centre, downsize to 4000 sq. metres (a full line supermarket according to Aldi) and make use of underground car parking like they did in Tewantin and Maleny.
Maybe then, they could find a suitable site.
Zoning maps of Cooroy shows a mosaic of colours radiating out in patches and elongated strips, in a seemingly unorganised array of land uses that reflect the piecemeal development of the Cooroy Shopping Centre and resulting in a lack of car parking and street parking congestion. Aldi complained in 2011 to the Retail Industry Inquiry Productivity Commission that major planning and zoning issues affected the rollout of ALDI stores and the unavailability of appropriately zoned and sized land.
They stated that the structural planning process for activity centres is often years behind schedule, bears no relevance to changing community, business and economic needs and often results in a minimal expansion of suitably zoned retail/commercial land.
So, is Council to be blamed for not being proactive in monitoring and analysing market needs, available land and coming up with a better planned and balanced land use outcomes. The standard hierarchical business/retail centres planning scheme approach is obviously flawed.
Woolworths say that their proposal will benefit Cooroy with about 300 jobs, but are scant on details as to how many town centre business losses will occur. Big supermarkets have caused significant economic, environmental, and social damage by concentrating market power, harming local economies and retailers in other Australian towns.
Other concerning issues is that the currently pleasant and scenic approach road to Cooroy will be blighted aesthetically and create unnecessary traffic delays by the addition of another large roundabout entry to the shopping centre (83 metres from Ferrells Road) and two new bus bays in Myall Road adjacent to the proposed Shopping Centre. The proposal will also create unnecessary dual shopping/business/commercial trips etc., when it can currently be carried out in one trip.
The proposal goes against all the planning principles that l have learnt and practiced in my long, civil engineering and town planning career.
(Johann Holdysz, Tewantin resident, planning and development consultant)
