STATEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS Bunnings Group Bungaree Street, Telarah December 2018 Ref: 15061 STATEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ALTERATIONS AND ADDITTIONS TO EXISTING BUNNINGS WAREHOUSE Bungaree Street, Telarah CLIENT: BUNNINGS Group Insite Planning Services Pty Ltd (ACN 109 684 648) Address: The Vintage, Pokolbin PO Box 93, Cessnock NSW 2325 Contact: (ph.) 4998 7496 (mob) 0421 218 925 Email: [email protected] QUALITY ASSURANCE This document has been prepared, checked and released in accordance with the Quality Control Standards established by Insite Planning Services Pty Ltd. Issue Date Description By 1 07/06/2016 Version 1 SL 2 12/12/2018 Re Draft SL 3 13/12/2018 Client Review PD Final Review / QA 4 14/12/2018 SL Approve Copyright © Insite Planning Services This document has been authorised by ________________________ Date 14/12/2018 Disclaimer This report has been prepared based on the information supplied by the client and investigation undertaken by Insite Planning Services Pty Ltd & other consultants. Recommendations are based on Insite Planning Services Pty Ltd professional judgement only and whilst every effort has been taken to provide accurate advice, Council and any other regulatory authorities may not concur with the recommendations expressed within this report. This document and the information are solely for the use of the authorised recipient and this document may not be used, copied or reproduced in whole or part for any purpose other than that for which it was supplied by Insite Planning Services Pty Ltd. Insite Planning Services Pty Ltd makes no representation, undertakes no duty and accepts no responsibility to any third party who may use or rely upon this document or the information. Confidentiality Statement All information, concepts, ideas, strategies, commercial date and all other information whatsoever contained within this document as well as any and all ideas and concepts described during the presentation are provided on a commercial in confidence basis and remain the intellectual property and Copyright of Insite Planning Services Pty Ltd and affiliated entities. This document has been registered with our solicitors along with a copy of all previous materials. i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A Development Application has been prepared on behalf of Bunnings Group Ltd, seeking Maitland City Council’s consent to expand the existing Bunnings store at Bungaree Street, Telarah. This current application follows the withdrawal of a previous development application lodged with Maitland Council in 2016 for a new store that was proposed to be located primarily on the adjacent land to the south of the existing store site on the Corner of Ledsam and Bungaree Streets. That application was withdrawn in September 2018 in order to provide a new design and a better environmental outcome for the wetlands located on that property and followed some considerable negotiations with the NSW Department of Primary Industries (Office of Water). The new proposal is to expand the existing Bunnings Warehouse south by approximately 17m and provide additional car parking a new nursery, bagged goods section and a new access egress to the site, car parking and delivery vehicle access/egress on to the site. The proposed entry road will be an elevated bridge above the existing wetland. The additional Carpark/Nursery/Bagged Good will be constructed on an engineered fill pad to desired levels. It is proposed to expand the retail area of the existing store by some 5,507m2 from 12,551m2 to 18,058m2. It is also proposed to add an additional 130 carparking spaces up from the 288 spaces that service the current store to 418 spaces. The development will occur on the vacant lots to the south of the existing site and referred to as Lot 150 DP1113139, Lot 15 DP 746311 and Lot 14 DP 746311 as well as over part of Lot 2 DP 1078905 which contains the existing store. This development site is located on Bungaree Street with a secondary access to Johnson Street at Telarah. The site is located immediately adjacent to the intersection of these streets with the New England Highway, a major intersection and roundabout near to the Maitland Hospital. The subject land is ideally suited for an expanded Bunnings Warehouse store due to its location and access to a significant growing market. The site is located within an existing Business area at Telarah and in close proximity to the Maitland Hospital, the New England Highway and the Maitland town centre. The site is also centrally located in terms of the Maitland LGA in respect to the residential growth area in the Maitland – Kurri Kurri corridor, to the north east of the LGA around Thornton and the growth areas to the west at Rutherford and to the North West at Aberglasslyn. ii Planning Assessment Summary This report demonstrates that the proposal will optimise the site’s characteristics and the locational advantages it enjoys. The land is appropriately zoned and the proposal has been designed to comply with relevant Council policies. Economic benefits - The development will add value to the land and the locality. Not only will the new Bunnings facility provide additional services to its retail catchment, but it will be a source of additional employment and reinforce the use of the location as the premier hardware and building supplies business. The expansion of the existing store will generate an estimated 40 direct jobs in the operation of the store once completed. Flooding - The primary issues in respect to this proposal is related to the design response to the flood liability of the subject site of the new store. The 1% AEP flood level in this location is 9.8 mAHD and taking into consideration a 0.5 m freeboard, the Flood Planning Level is therefore 10.3 mAHD. Existing ground levels on the site range from below 3.0 mAHD up to over 12.0 mAHD. The proposed development involves filling to provide slab on ground construction for the main warehouse and for the majority of the additional car park. The design response to address the flood prone nature of the site and meet the 10.3mAHD Flood Planning Level involves no net infill up to the 1% AEP flood level. WMAwater were engaged as part of the design of the project to undertake a Flood Assessment. As part of that assessment they undertook a two-dimensional modelling assessment of the flood behaviour resulting from the proposed development in comparison with existing conditions. Based on the outcomes of this modelling, WMAwater have advised that they consider that the development will not significantly increase flood affectation elsewhere in the floodplain. Visual Impact - The design of the original proposal for a new store included an elevated slab; that is not now proposed and instead the carpark and extended areas will be utilise existing ground levels to extend the Bunnings store and a filled pad for the new carparking areas to the south of the store. The original elevated slab had potential visual impacts, and these have effectively been substantially reduced with the new design. Notwithstanding it still proposed to manage the visual appearance of the development on the Bungaree streetscape through the landscaping of the site including boundary vegetation that will buffer and restrict views. iii Traffic – Given the sites location in the vicinity of the major roundabout connecting the New England Highway, Bungaree Street and High Street, traffic management and access into and out of the site has been a major issue in the design of the development. The development only proposes one new access into the site on Bungaree Street some 270m south of this major intersection on the New England Highway. It is proposed that delivery vehicles will enter the site through the proposed new seagull access on Bungaree Street and egress through the existing access on Johnson Street. In terms of customer traffic, the Johnson Street access will remain an option but the majority of traffic will enter the site at either the existing or new access points on Bungaree Street. The new intersection is proposed to be constructed as a “seagull” arrangement on Bungaree Street reflecting the nature of the existing Bunnings access with sheltered right and left turns into and out of the site. A Traffic Impact Statement accompanies the development application supporting this arrangement and concluding that there will be no adverse impact on the local road network. Conclusion The extensions to the existing Bunnings Warehouse are permissible with consent in respect to the zone that applies to the site, the B5 Business Development zone. The accompanying reports and this Statement of Environmental Effects, as summarised above, has established that all of the relevant heads of consideration have been satisfactory addressed through the investigations and design of the proposal. As a consequence, the development satisfies a merits based assessment under S.4.15 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act and Council can issue a conditional development consent. iv Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Subject Land ......................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Surrounding Land ................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Proposal