Plan prevents Masters

Leopold has lost a proposed Masters hardware store after an independent planning panel backed Geelong council on the boundaries of the town’s structure plan.
Council adopted its Leopold structure plan this week, with the document to go before Planning Minister Mathew Guy for approval.
The structure plan maintains the town’s western boundary despite developers seeking to extend Gateway Plaza shopping centre west along Bellarine Hwy.
The Independent reported in July that centre manager Lascorp had supported Woolworths’ submission seeking expansion to a 35,000-square-metre sub-regional shopping centre east of Clifton Ave.
Woolworths told council its proposal provided “critical exposure and avoidance of increased traffic along Melaluka Rd”.
But the report to council this week said Lascorp “made it very clear to the panel that it wishes to pursue a major retail extension to the existing centre and to develop a stand-alone bulky goods outlet on its land west of Clifton Ave”.
“It has secured a heads of agreement with the Masters chain of stores to develop this land. Lascorp submitted that this site was the only option for the location of a Masters store.
“In the event that this option was not supported, Masters would not develop anywhere in the centre, which would be to the loss of both Leopold and the Bellarine Peninsula.”
The panel backed council’s position that the shopping centre extension should be along Melaluka Rd instead, the report said.
Developer Denis More also failed to have his land included in the structure plan to allow development of a harbour, which he built without council approval.
He wanted the site included for future development but the panel again backed council in retaining the northern town boundary at Portarlington Rd.