By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Ranges Council has issued a notice of intent to approve a planning permit for a new and improved IGA in Warburton.
Provided there aren’t any objections to the development in the 28 days from 4 July, the new supermarket will be able to go ahead with owner Shane Wyles hoping works can start before the end of the year.
Mr Wyles said they’ve been dealing fairly closely with the Council and were confident that they were supporting the,
“We were really happy to get through that hurdle, there’s a significant number of normal conditions that have to be worked through and it’s a fairly complex build because there’s significant earthworks at the back of the property that have to be retained,” he said.
“We hope to get through all those conditions so that work can possibly start in the dry weather of late 2023 or early 2023.”
Fisher Developments will be delivering the project at an estimated cost of $7 million.
Mr Wyles said while he is hopeful, if they can’t tick all of the boxes this year construction will have to wait until the following summer.
“It’ll have to be the dry weather the following year because the site will be too wet to be able to do groundwork during the winter months,” he said.
“It’ll make a huge difference, it will be a 1500 square metre building and about 1250 of that will be retail, more than five times the size of what we have at the moment.”
The design for the new supermarket is also set to improve parking and access for trucks, with 60 more car parks wrapping around the back of the existing Warburton Pharmacy, with the new IGA building situated further back.
Wurundjeri Elder Doreen Garvey Wandin was consulted on the design to incorporate some Indigenous characteristics into the building.
Mr Wyles said it will be a full-service supermarket and won’t require on-street parking like they do at the moment.
“At the moment, we’re more of a top-up or convenience store but this will allow the people to do a full shop with all the modern facilities that new supermarkets have these days from gourmet sections down to their basic groceries,” he said.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time, and to get this one approved is absolutely fantastic. Mt Evelyn is basically the same size store as what we will be and that’s recently gone overgone a really vibrant update, and we’ll be looking to be in a similar vein to that.”
