Centre approved

By Tania Martin
AN OLINDA café and nursery has been given the tick of approval for expansion despite residents’ concerns over parking and loss of amenity.
Shire of Yarra Ranges councillors approved the application to expand the business to include an alternative recreation centre at a meeting last Tuesday (14 July) on the condition that parking was kept on site.
Once completed the centre at 86 Olinda-Monbulk Road will offer yoga and bonsai classes and feature art displays.
The land is already home to a plant and wholesale nursery and café.
Objector and nearby resident Sandra Feldman told the meeting there had been a lack of information and consultation over the application.
“A small sign at the front of the property omitted serious details,” she said.
Ms Feldman said the developer had applied for a liquor licence and residents were not given the opportunity to object.
“We feel we should have been formally informed by mail,” she said.
“Some of us were away at time and our combined letter of objection was considered late, completely ignored and not even acknowledged.”
However, speaking on behalf of the developer, Annabelle Lin said the application was for the renewal of an existing licence.
Ms Feldman said the developer didn’t live in Olinda and should not get the right to ‘forfeit’ the locals’ amenity by developing the site.
She said the major concern was car parking.
Ms Feldman said she believed there needed to be at least 42 spaces and the developer had applied for at least five of those to be place on the road-side.
She said Olinda-Monbulk Road was already dangerous enough without parking.
Ms Feldman last week asked the council to call for a VicRoads impact study on the location.
But instead, the council moved a motion that would see 41 parking spaces placed on site.
Ms Lin said the new centre would run as an auxiliary service to the existing café and wholesale nursery.
She said it would only operate five days a week for up to five hours a day and would be limited to 20 people at one time.
Ms Lin said it would feature yoga, medication, flower and bonsai classes and that most of the materials used would be sourced from the land whenever possible.
She said she understood the residents’ parking concerns, but called on the council to look at the nursery and centre on a case-by-case basis.
Ms Lin said the café was licensed to seat only 44 people and the centre had a maximum capacity of 20 and they would rarely be full at the same time.
Chandler Ward councillor Graham Warren said the development would go a long way towards ‘sprucing’ up the site.
“Anyone who knows the area can see it’s pretty tired and run down,” he said.
Streeton Ward Cr Noel Cliff said the only solution for the parking problems was to contain it on site.
“It’s a seven hectare site. I think they can fit the 40 spaces,” he said.