Strategy considers Torquay’s retail future

THE Surf Coast Shire council is updating its plans for retail areas in Torquay and Jan Juc for the next 15 years to better reflect recent changes in the town.

At last week’s meeting, councillors resolved to place the draft Torquay-Jan Juc Retail and Employment Land Strategy (RELS) on public exhibition.

The officers’ report notes the previous retail strategy was adopted in 2011 but did not account for the establishment of the first stages of the Torquay North neighborhood activity centre since then, as well as schools and other community infrastructure in Torquay North.

The uptake in the West Coast Business Park has exceeded earlier predictions and a wide cross-section of new businesses have opened, but there has been a discontinuation of local surf industry manufacturing, including Boardriders selling its headquarters in Baines Crescent.

Other contributing factors include the council adopting the Torquay Town Centre Urban Design Framework in 2017, and the ongoing Surf Coast Distinctive Area and Landscape process.

“In simple terms, the strategy’s purpose is to recognise demand and to ‘make sense’ of the existing disjointed employment land offering in Torquay-Jan Juc by making the role and purpose of each of the employment areas clear, and by identifying the need and opportunity for the expansion or constraint of employment areas,” the report states.

The draft RELS, which will cover the period from now until 2036, recognises the relative lack of vacant land within Torquay and Jan Juc’s activity centres, the inability of Torquay’s town centre to thrive in spite of previous efforts to stimulate activity, and that most of the town’s present population growth is in the north.

It estimates Torquay and Jan Juc will need 22,000sqm of retail floorspace, between 16,000-24,000sqm of office floorspace, and up to 28 hectares of industrial land over the period to 2036.

Cr Liz Pattison said the strategy acknowledged that not all types of retail needed to be accommodated within Torquay.

“This makes reference specifically that the discount department store is no longer a priority, something that I think that many in our community will be interested in hearing,” she said

“This type of retail can be provided by other precincts such as Armstrong Creek and the Greater Geelong region.”

Cr Kate Gazzard said she supported the concept in the draft RELS of “20-minute neighbourhoods”, where activity centres are within a 20-minute walk and meet residents’ daily needs for health facilities, services, schools and shopping.

She encouraged people to provide feedback.

“Particularly those in the community who are calling for an impact study; this might be a really good opportunity to put pressure on regarding this,” Cr Gazzard said.

To read a background report on the draft RELS, head to surfcoast.vic.gov.au/Property/Planning-and-Building/Planning/Land-use-planning/Plans-projects-studies.