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6:29PM Sunday 07 September, 2008 Sunshine Coast weather Mostly sunny min 10° - max 23°

Council approves bigger Bunnings

4 July 2008

| By Grant Reynolds

The Sunshine Coast Regional Council has decided to call a spade a spade and approve an application by Bunnings for a larger warehouse at Noosaville.

The site, on the corner of Eumundi Road and Gateway Drive, was designated as industrial but it seems there’s a grey area around hardware stores as they have to sell to the public, straddling the line between pure industrial and retail.

A previous application with a floor area of more than 12,000 sq m was rejected and an appeal to the Environment and Planning Court was thrown out as it conflicted with the draft Noosa Plan.

Council staff recommended approval of the new application on the grounds that there was significant need for a mega hardware store in Noosa, limiting the impact on other businesses, and it satisfied the criteria set down for the land as an industrial zone.

The new application is about 5000 sq m smaller and the hardware store definition was consistent with the site’s industrial zoning.

Division 11 councillor Russell Green said the revised application provided sufficient grounds to approve the application, despite a slight conflict with the Noosa Plan in terms of what constitutes retail.

“If you go through and look at that style of store, they offer products for the builder through to the home handyman,” Mr Green said.

“It’s been scaled down significantly.”

The preliminary tick of approval was given at Wednesday’s strategy and planning committee and is expected to be passed at the next general committee meeting.

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