NEW RETAIL stores could rise smack-bang in the middle of a shopping centre's car park if the City of Greater Bendigo approves a new planning proposal.
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A group calling shots at the Bendigo Homemaker Centre - Calardu Bendigo Pty Ltd - wants to get rid of 167 car parks as part of the major site revamp.
They want to build two retail stores, a cafe space and a toilet block over 500 square metres of car parking in the centre of the High Street site, along with two huge expansions over staff parking lots out the back.
The centre's existing cafe, Rocklea Cafe, would presumably move into that space so that its current home in one corner of the site could become the entrance to a large new tenancy.
The plans do not specify what would go into the new space, which would have the fourth largest footprint of all shops at the shopping centre.
It could potentially become two separate tenancies but Calardu is yet to confirm its plans for a wall that would divide the spaces.
It has been approached for comment.
The large new space would cover what is currently a staff car park out the back of the centre.
It is not the only place on site that Calardu wants to expand.
It has also asked the council's permission to transform a second staff car park out the back of the Lincraft and Derrimut 24:7 Gym.
Calardu has not specified exactly what that extension would become but the drawings do give some clues.
They suggest builders could knock a 10-metre wide hole in the walls of tenancies currently occupied by Lincraft or the gym.
The shopping centre has more than enough car parks to handle the changes, including the extra 94 occupied spaces expected during peak hours, Calardu's traffic consultants have told the council.
They ran traffic surveys during peak periods last May and found barely a fifth of the 619 public car spaces occupied on a Saturday.
"Therefore, even with the proposed net loss of 167 car parking spaces as a result of the development, there will be more than adequate car parking spaces available to accommodate the expected peak car parking demands generated by the proposed expansion," the traffic consultants said.
Bendigo's council is considering the application and is expected to make a decision at a later date.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
