City of Wanneroo against plans for new Coles and Woolworths in Darch

The City of Wanneroo wants the WA Planning Commission to not approve a Woolworths and Coles as part of a new development in Darch.

Wanneroo councillors at Tuesday’s meeting unanimously backed a recommendation from officers to write to the WAPC urging it to deny approval of the two supermarket chains.

Their reasoning included there was no demonstrated need for the proposed centres, it would prevent existing and approved centres from achieving a suitable level of trade and it would require a loss of residential land in a time of a housing crisis.

The proposed site is currently vacant and bounded by Mirrabooka Avenue, Furniss Road and Driver Road.

The site is less than 2km from Darch Plaza, which includes a Supa IGA, less than 4km from another Coles and Woolworths in Alexander Heights and less than 4km from Kingsway City Shopping Centre.

“Administration have filed an extremely thorough report and I fully support their recommendation,” Cr Natalie Herridge said.

“As a local who uses the existing precincts and looking forward to East Landsdale coming on, I know well of what we have and what we don’t have — and that’s a lack of centres.

“The development is surplus to the community’s needs.”

The 4250sqm proposed Coles site and 3500sqm Woolworths are planned to be built in walking distance from each other and have space for smaller retail businesses.

“It is considered that the cumulative impacts of the likely and proposed developments are unacceptable,” the council report said.

“Administration considers that both the proposed centres will negatively impact on existing or planned centres and recommend that they are not supported.”

The report said several nearby retail centres lodged detailed objections as part of the consultation process, based mainly on the detrimental impact they believed one or both of the proposals would have on their viability.

The report said Kingsway City Shopping Centre had the capacity to nearly double its floor space from 18,000sqm to 32,000sqm, while the new East Landsdale Centre has been approved with construction expected to start by 2025.