Metro mall an ‘election issue’

With over 4,000 signatories to its petition, and some 200 banners expected on display throughout the area in September, residents’ action group Metro Watch is gaining a formidable community support base in its push to stop the proposed doubling in size of the Marrickville Metro Shopping Centre.

The proposed $140 million project by Metro owners AMP Capital, currently on public exhibition with the NSW Planning Department, would see the existing mall swell in size from 23,000 to over 44,000 square metres of retail floor space, spread over two levels and two buildings.

Metro Watch spokesperson Molly Furzer said the proposed upgrade had very little community support and would be disastrous to the local community, causing severe traffic congestion and pollution, and taking business away from nearby strip shopping.

“The Metro is located in a residential area. It’s a bad place for a shopping mall, and now they want to turn it into a Westfield-type mega mall,” Ms Furzer said.

“The local strips will lose customers as soon as the redeveloped Metro opens its doors, diverting customers away from the shopping strips and to the mall.

“It’s already a very congested area, the roads are very narrow. The Traffic Management Plan that AMP conducted says the roads are already at capacity,” she said.

Consultation done by AMP Capital in March to determine community support for the upgrade indicated 57 per cent of the community supported the proposal. But Metro Watch subsequently learned that, of the 3,000-strong representative group Council recommended AMP survey, only 119 were consulted. Moreover, no mention was made in the survey questions of the size or extent of the proposed redevelopment.

In response to community concern over the upgrade, the Marrickville Chamber of Commerce last month commissioned a report to assess the economic impact of the mall’s expansion on local strip shopping in such places as Marrickville and nearby Dulwich Hill, Petersham and Enmore.

Joe Khoury from the Chamber said the report, which will also assess the impact on traffic, would likely reveal that local strip shopping will suffer considerable casualties as a result of the upgraded Metro mall.

“[The] Marrickville strip became a ghost town after the Metro originally got going. We’ve spent 12 years trying to build it up and we’ve managed to get it to about 50 per cent of what it used to be,” Mr Khoury said.

“If the Metro doubles in size it’s going to destroy the strip all over again. It’d take us back to what it was 12 years ago.

“Shopping strips are the hub of the community – they’re the heart and soul. They’re where people meet and get together for a coffee. We’re very fearful of that deteriorating again,” he said.

A response from AMP Capital noted that the demographics of the Marrickville LGA had changed since the Metro opened almost 25 years ago, and that, “the retail and service needs to the community have also changed and are not being met by the current retail offer within the LGA”. According to project manager Vanessa Walker, AMP Capital’s research found that 1 in 2 people in the Marrickville LGA found the concept of an expanded Metro “very appealing”, and that some 81 per cent of those within the Marrickville LGA found the idea of an expansion appealing.

In response to the impact on local businesses, Ms Walker said an independent economic impact statement had found the proposed expansion would have a three per cent impact on strip shopping, and that it would generate approximately 700 new jobs upon completion. She also added an independent traffic management plan had shown the estimated increase in traffic to be viable, with a neutral effect on South Newtown and Enmore.

But despite this, Marrickville Greens Councillor Peter Olive said the upgrade had become such an important issue to the community that it would have a considerable impact on locals when they go to the polls in March next year.

“Being a Part 3A development application, it really bypasses the whole Council process,” said Cr Olive.

“By putting it in the hands of the Minister, AMP can go ahead without any real consultation with the community, but this has made it a real election issue,” he said.

“The community’s going to be looking to the Planning Minister and to our local member Carmel Tebbutt for action on this,” he said.

by Tamara Smallhorn