Fences going up at $29m Torquay development

WORK has started after months of inactivity at the former “gateway” site in Torquay that will eventually contain a $29 million development.

The project to be built by Baines Torquay Pty Ltd at 85 Geelong Road, which has received planning approval, will include a six-theatre cinema with 600 seats, a three-storey backpackers’ hotel with 56 rooms, an associated restaurant and bar, a childcare facility for 130 children, a medical centre to accommodate up to 12 practitioners, a 7-Eleven service station, KFC and Zambrero restaurants, a drive-through Bean Squeeze coffee shop.

Although the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) approved the development in February 2021, there has been almost no activity at the site for almost 18 months apart from the installation of small electrical substations.

This changed last week, when permanent and temporary fences began going up along the Geelong Road and Grossmans Road boundaries of the site, with the temporary fences indicating the location of vehicle and pedestrian access.

Located within the Surf Coast Gateway Precinct and originally known as a “gateway” site due to its prominent location on the Surf Coast Highway, the vacant 2.56 hectare paddock has been attracting interest from developers keen to transform it into a major facility since at least 2016.

G2 Urban Planning submitted a planning permit application on behalf of Baines Torquay to the Surf Coast Shire in July 2019.

The shire originally refused to grant a permit for the original application but the proponents appealed the decision at the VCAT due to the shire’s failure to resolve the matter within the 60-day limit.

According to the VCAT draft permit, the shire and Baines Torquay eventually agreed to confine their dispute to the determination of the responsibility for, contribution to the cost of, and timing for the delivery of, external roadworks in Grossmans Road and Geelong Road.

VCAT’s ruling also imposed a long list of conditions, including at least 333 car parks; acoustic testing to be performed within a month of each of the cinema, hotel and service station starting operation; and no more than 200 patrons allowed outdoors in the bar and restaurant, tables and seating for at least 75 per cent of them, and no live music.

Despite little work happening at the site until now, Baines Torquay has been active behind the scenes, lodging plans to comply with the shire since the VCAT ruling, including in January and twice in March.

G2 Urban Planning referred questions from this newspaper to a spokesperson from Baines Torquay, who had not responded to questions as this newspaper went to print.