First the hills, now beach residents tell McDonald’s to SCRAM

Miki Perkins
January 17, 2013
The Age

HOT on the heels of its wrangle with the residents of Tecoma, fast-food chain McDonald’s is facing a fight with Seaford locals over plans to build a 24-hour restaurant opposite the foreshore.

McDonald’s lodged a planning application at the end of last year and a feisty resident group has been formed in opposition to the proposal.

They say it is ”inappropriate” for the site, which is opposite the foreshore and about 100 metres from the beach.

Frankston councillors will vote on the application for the corner of Nepean Highway and Seaford Road at a planning meeting in early February, and are tipped to vote it down because of strong opposition.

There have been more than 400 formal objections and about 250 people attended an information session last week.

But residents say they expect McDonald’s to take the fight all the way to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Locals in the Dandenong Ranges town of Tecoma were disappointed when the council’s case against the fast-food chain was lost recently at VCAT.

Tony Tyrer, a founder of SCRAM – Seaford Community Residents Against McDonald’s – said his group was not opposed to development, or McDonald’s as a company.

But it believed the site was not right for a restaurant.

Mr Tyrer said the site was in a residential area, was zoned as residential 1, was at a notorious intersection and was close to Kananook Creek and the beach.

”We are extremely concerned about the proximity to the beach – one of Melbourne’s best – and the creek, which are all sensitive environmental regions we feel would be exposed to littering,” Mr Tyrer said.

Although the land is zoned for residential development, McDonald’s is able to apply for a planning permit to develop a commercial property on this site if the council deems it appropriate.

Mr Tyrer said the Seaford group had been in touch with Tecoma residents about their – ultimately unsuccessful – campaign, and had been looking at their strategies.

”They had been unfairly tarred with the label of being radical hippies and anti-McDonald’s [but] we’re very careful that we are not going to be accused of similar things,” he said.
”This [opposition] would apply to any fast-food outlet or commercial development on that spot.”

Frankston City Council chief executive Dennis Hovenden said the council had heard the views of 250 residents at the public meeting, and he invited the public to come to the council’s planning meeting on February 4.

All planning applications needed to meet the council’s criteria on waste management, traffic implications and car parking opportunities before a planning permit was granted, he said.
The Age tried to contact McDonald’s, but did not get a response.

The outlet, if the application is successful, is scheduled to open in 2014.

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