The $22m expansion of the Yanchep Central Shopping Centre has been approved by the Metro Outer JDAP after a short delay due to Main Roads WA’s concerns about future vehicle queuing along Peony Blvd during peak periods.

When it passed the development on Wednesday the JDAP included a condition that the applicant upgrade the Marmion Ave and Peony Blvd intersection to include additional capacity for right turn movements from Peony Blvd onto Marmion Ave.

The condition included that investigation of the required upgrades should be undertaken by the applicant within two years of the development first being occupied and implemented within two years thereafter or another time if agreed to by the City of Wanneroo.

The development will include a service station on the corner of Peony Blvd and Marmion Ave with eight refuelling bays and an incidental convenience store.

Thirty-six existing car parking bays will be removed to accommodate the service station but the proposal allows for a total of 785 bays of which 312 will be new bays plus 18 queuing bays (including click and collect bays).

Also included in the development are a supermarket with a 3600sqm floor area, a liquor store, eight specialty retail tenancies, a child care centre, medical centre and two drive-through food outlets.

To be built in the north-eastern portion of the development area, the child care centre will be able to accommodate a maximum of 85 children and 10 staff.

The medical centre in the south-eastern part of the development area will be able to accommodate a maximum of eight consultants.

Adjacent to Marmion Ave the two drive-through food outlets will have a floor area of 285sqm and 265sqm respectively.

The eight specialty retail tenancies fronting Peony Blvd are intended to accommodate food and beverage, retail and office-based uses.

In May the city’s design review panel said the strengths of the proposal included the formation of a coherent and pedestrian-focused main street with integrated landscape and provision for a future ‘town square’.

Another strength according to the panel was the proposal’s effective sleeving of the supermarket and car park with active specialty retail uses accessed from the main street and not an internal mall.

They also approved of the plan’s inclusion of pockets of alfresco seating and dining to the east and west of the main street and distributed along the footpath.

In a letter to the JDAP on November 12 PTS Town Planning director Peter Simpson said 30 days after the development application was referred to Main Roads additional information was requested, which required an extension to the responsible authority report (RAR).

“We provided the additional information and the city provided Main Roads additional time to provide further comments,’’ he said.

At the end of the second referral Main Roads requested a meeting and another extension.

“At that point we requested the city to finalise the RAR as the delays were impacting the tenant agreements.’’

In the RAR the city said it accepted that modifications to the Peony Blvd and Marmion Ave intersection would likely be required to reduce queue lengths along Peony Blvd.

“The modifications, if any, will require additional modelling and investigation of the intersection, however, it is anticipated that this can be resolved by modifying the phasing of the traffic signals,’’ the city said.

“(But) should it be determined that intersection upgrades are required this will not affect the development application and can therefore be undertaken at a later date.

“The applicant has advised that the development will be implemented in a staged manner. “The service station will be operational first and then the supermarket and main street approximately six months later.

“The balance of the development will progress based on market demand and construction timeframes.’’

Given this the city said there would not be any queuing issues along Peony Blvd at the start of operations.

The shopping centre expansion is estimated to result in 106 construction jobs and up to 723 centre positions.

The retail sustainability analysis (RSA) prepared by the applicant to support the additional retail floorspace for the centre also considered future expansion to accommodate a district department store.

The RSA said there was capacity for two discount department stores to be developed in the trade area from 2025 to 2030.

Yanchep Central could support one discount department store and by 2035 it was estimated the trade area could support three discount department stores.

Two Rocks and Yanchep make up the primary trade area for Yanchep Central.

The secondary trade area includes Eglinton, the northwest part of Alkimos as well as Shire of Gingin localities Wilbinga, Caraban, Woodridge, Neergabby and Guilderton.

The tertiary trade area is defined by suburbs between Gabbadah up to Nilgen to the north.

This article appeared on Yanchep News Online on 18 November 2021.