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BROADMEADOWS central business precinct is showing the first sign
of new life after languishing for several years for want of investor
interest and critical state government transport funding.
Hume council gave the green light at its meeting last week for
Betta Foods confectionery group to redevelop its landholdings along King
William Street, on the eastern side of the Pascoe Vale Road railway
tracks and the central shopping area.
The council’s approval signals the first east-west axis
development in the designated activity centre, and the first real
possibility in years of seeing cranes on the Broadmeadows skyline.
Betta Foods managing director Alex Sloan told councillors the
company had taken close working negotiations with the council’s planning
department to get its plans right.
“This represents 18 months of careful consideration,” Mr Sloan said, referring to the work done since Betta Foods first presented its development plans in February last year.
The new plans show 560 new apartments, almost 4000 square metres
of retail spaces and a further 15,000 square metres of offices, vaying
in height between two and 10 stories.
“One of the greatest challenges was responding to the Broadmeadows
structure plan,” Mr Sloan said. “This fulfills all the plan objectives
and approval will also facilitate keeping 200 manufacturing jobs in Hume
for the short and long term.”
The site, currently used to make, package and distribute liquorice
products and other confectionary, faces the railway line along its
western flank and adjoins the railway station precinct.
The Betta Foods proposal features a number of environmentally
sustainable design features and construction principals, and includes
developer contributions for community facilities, road network upgrades
and public open space to the value of $524,000.
About $300,000 has been earmarked to upgrade the intersection of Camp Road and Railway Crescent.
But traffic impacts, particularly increased congestion around the
Camp Road railway station access and exits, were of greatest concern to
councillors Helen Patsikatheodorou and Adem Atmaca, both of whom voted
against approving the Betta Foods plans, even though Cr Patsikatheodorou
said she appreciated the proposal would provide much-needed new housing
and keep jobs in the activity centre.
“We want a changing look for Broadmeadows; we want to change the energy,” she said.
“We want the best of the best but I’d have thought10 storeys, eight against the road, is overdevelopment.”
Cr Atmaca urged Betta Foods management to go back to the drawing
board with council officers and “try to create a better outcome” to
improve access to the development.
