7-Eleven service station approved for Joondalup business zone

THE Joondalup business precinct is getting another service station.

This morning, the Metro North-West Joint Development Assessment Panel voted 4-1 to conditionally approve a 7-Eleven service station and convenience store at 8 Buick Way, which is currently vacant.

The $2.3 million development proposed three petrol bowsers with six refuelling spaces and one air and water bay, with 10 on-site car parking bays for customers and staff and eight bike spaces.

There will also be a pedestrian path linking the retail building to the existing paths on Hodges Drive and the Mitchell Freeway road reserve and two signs.

The proposal was advertised with no submissions received and a bushfire management plan was referred to the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES).

Joondalup planning services manager Chris Leigh said the plan was required because the site was in a bushfire prone area and the nature of the land use made it high risk.

He said for DFES to endorse the plan, they required a “legal mechanism” for the City to enforce the applicant to manage these areas.

Therefore, approval included this condition, as well as a condition for the City to endorse the plan in consultation with DFES before development starts.

Planning Solutions senior planner Josh Watson said the station had been “designed to respond to the topography of the site… with good quality landscaping”.

However, Joondalup councillor Philippa Taylor did not support the proposal citing traffic and “stacking” concerns.

She said access to Winton Road was often congested and she was worried queuing cars would block another entrance.

But Mr Leigh said the City’s traffic engineers were “comfortable the setback distance would allow for the anticipated queue lengths at peak times within the site” and the road network was capable of accommodating extra traffic.

Mr Watson added that 7-Eleven was “not a discount retailer and would not generate as big a problem” as some other stations.

Joondalup councillor Christine Hamilton-Prime said it would be a good addition to the area providing “some difference of choice which is important for consumers”.

However, she did request the applicant look into planting a mature tree on Buick Way as part of its landscape plans.