19-23 Hereford Road, Mount Evelyn VIC 3796

A convenience restaurant could heavily disrupt the community of mount Evelyn, by reducing traffic to the collection of cafe's, coffee shops, bakery's, and small take-away chains that mount Evelyn is known for. Mount Evelyn's small businesses would be likely to fail, an mount Evelyn's small businesses are it's community. Furthermore, this application would remove one of the largest social sport centres and replace it with a convenience restaurant. Research suggests that health and wellbeing is highly associated with exercise, and social connections, each having marked impacts on lifespan, suicide, and mental health. Convenience food is typically a poor health option, reducing life span and negatively impacting mental and physical health.

If a convenience restaurant is built in mount Evelyn, I believe there will be no winners. It will successfully make money, but will come at the expense of the community, the culture, the health, and the wellbeing of local residents. Small business will suffer, community town feel will be degraded, local social sport will be destroyed, and all this will be replaced with a franchise responsible for contributing to obesity.

If a mount Evelyn resident wants convenience food, it is a 6 minute drive to Lilydale MacDonald's, and Lilydale KFC, and a 9 minute drive to Kilsyth MacDonald's and red rooster. Meanwhile, the indoor sport centre has a history of attracting players from 20+ minutes away.

A Fats Food (sorry fast food) restaurant could have a very bad effect on the community of mount Evelyn, we are proud of our collection of cafe's, coffee shops, bakery's, and small take-away resteraunts that mount Evelyn is known for and do not want custom to them, diverted to buying junk food.
Mount Evelyn's small businesses would begin to fail, and the small businesses are the main part of the community in Mount Evelyn.

Furthermore, this application would remove one of the largest social sport centres and replace it with a fast food chain restaurant. Research tells us that health and wellbeing is highly associated with exercise, and social connections, each having marked impacts on lifespan, suicide, and mental health. Fast food is typically an extremely poor health option, reducing life span and negatively impacting mental and physical health. The Moiunt Evelyn community has faught long and hard to have the sporting facilities here (skate park, Tennis courts, Athletics ground etc.) built and serviced, we see only egative impacts from replacing an active sports complex witha junk food outlet.

If a convenience restaurant is built in mount Evelyn, I believe there will be no winners. It may make money there, though it is not on a through road to the Yarra Vally, but will come at the expense of the culture, Health, and the wellbeing of local residents and our community as a whole. Small local business will suffer, community town feel will be damaged and we will lose a place of gathering for social sport, for people coming from all over eastern melbourne and the comunity here.
The Sports center to be replaced by a franchise responsible for contributing to obesity epidemic and poor social & mental health of our younger community members, this is a terrible option that you are putting forward for the people of your community.

There is plenty of Fast food outlets, MacDonald's, KFC etc. just a 6 minute drive to Lilydale or a 9 minute drive to Kilsyth MacDonald's and red rooster, or 15 minutes to Mooroolbark or chirnside McDonalds.

This application is an application for poor health and the downfall of our community as we know it, fit, healthy and friendly.

Whilst the industry will comply with emission regulations there will still odour which will permeate beyond the premises which becomes an aesthetic issue.
This is predominantly a residential area and to have a fast food outlet open 24 hours has the potential to increase noise & loitering in the residential area. I believe the local Mt Evelyn police station is not manned 24hours so if a situation arose resources would have to come from elsewhere in the area.
Replacing a sporting venue with fast food is not helpful in trying to combat the obesity problem in Australia. Yes I know it’s all about an individuals choice but why put temptation in the way… make it more inconvenient not easier.
One simple question. Why can there not be one are where there is no big business trying to out do the smaller man .

I'm against McDonalds on Hereford Rd. Although the Futsual building is horrid, this area is surrounded by home's, leave it for housing and a childcare facility. Hereford rd isn't a main road like Maroondah hwy or Canterbury/Swansea roads. Mt Evelyn has always styled itself as the quaint country town, even some of the shops, Community Library and house are architecturally in keeping with this style. For me Mount Evelyn has always been a bit of a Haven, up the hill, out of the rat race but you can still access everything you need within minutes. After 7pm there's very few cars on the road in Mt Evelyn, at night you can hear the occasion car on Hereford road, and I'm a block away from it. McDonalds isn't in keeping with the town, the rubbish, noise and potential 24hr disruptions it could cause makes it worth driving 5 minuted to lilydale, Kilsyth or Mooroolbark to get it.

I’m against the proposed Mc Donald’s for Mt Evelyn. Traffic is really bad during peak time and adding a fast food place will cause accidents to happen. If there’s to be a childcare centre next to Mc Donald’s l’d hate to think what might happen to children who may take off from there parent.
There is also the problem of people littering because they are too lazy to walk to the nearest bin. Our lovely town shouldn’t have to put up with litter from McDonalds.
I’m also concerned about the safety of wildlife in that area. Noise 24/7 is not a healthy way of life for our wildlife. Why should they have to suffer?
I’ve never in my life seen a childcare centre next to a fast food outlet. That is not a healthy combination. This whole situation smells of council greed in wanting two extra lots of rates. Do the councillors not care about the health of people in this town? It would appear that money is the ultimate goal of the Shire of Yarra Rages. That is poor form considering that people are struggling with the cost of everything going up. If this goes ahead those who are struggling will have more pressure on their already stretched budgets. What has happened to your sense of community? I think council needs rethink this planning application very seriously as having a Mc Donald’s in our community is not the wisest thing to have here.

Mt Evelyn does not need a McDonalds, we have 3 within a 10 minute drive and can easily order it on Uber eats if we are that desperate. The position of the proposed McDonalds does not make sense, it is surrounded by houses and you a removing a fantastic sports facility to replace it with a large unhealthy fast food corporation. That is ridiculous. Some people will say 'Yay it's progress' but those are also the same people that left whatever built up hell they were living in before hand to come live in Mt Evelyn. Mt Evelyn is one of the towns in the Yarra Ranges that has the small town feel of Yarra Junction or Warburton but is closer to the city and other facilities.

The Yarra Ranges Council promote 'shop local' and priority 3 for the councils "health and Wellbeing Goals (2021 - 2025)' is 'Increase Healthy Eating'. But yet again, you want to knock down a local business and put a world wide fast food restaurant. By accepting and allowing this proposal to go ahead you are directly going against 2 of the councils goals. If this application goes ahead, it opens the door for more and more large franchises to open up and ruin Mt Evelyn. In no time it would look like Chirnside Park. In Mt Evelyn we have plenty of local run businesses that offer take away food. We do not need McDonalds to come in and close them all down.

We managed to keep Woolworths out of Mount Evelyn thankfully, please do the same with this one. We would be left with a bad influence for the residents, our local businesses would suffer and MacDonalds has a reputation for its customers littering the area in other towns. Do we want this to happen? No thank you. Please keep Mount Evelyn clean.

Mount Evelyn is known as a 'village'. A fast food restaurant definitely does not fit within that village vibe. I am all for progress, but is this what we want for the beautiful town of Mount Evelyn?

I am very concerned about the smell of fast food cooking lingering 24/7, the increased traffic, noise pollution, public nuisance, and the rubbish. All of which will devalue our highly prized corner of the Yarra Valley.

Is there really a need to have a golden triangle of golden arches? There is a Mc Donalds in Lilydale and Mooroolbark already.

The height, scale, massing, and built form of the proposal together with the extent of hardstand areas will dominate the surroundings and respond negatively to the surrounding context.

The lack of sufficient setbacks in the proposal will make the proposal dominate the surroundings and be excessively visually prominent.

The Proposal contains insufficient landscaping particularly it lacks sufficient provision of native canopy trees indigenous to the area and with broad canopies to provide visual buffer for the structures and light associated with the Proposal.

The Proposal lacks sufficient best practices in water sensitive urban design as well as measures to prevent the entry of litter to the stormwater network.

The Proposal lacks sufficient and suitable measures to prevent the offsite emission of light from the premises into the public realm and onto adjacent sites.

Due to the local topography and context being structures that are subservient to the streetscape, the Proposal will be unacceptably visually prominent, and dominate the streetscape in a manner responding negatively to the surrounding context.

The height and scale of illuminated facades, carpark lighting, business identification and wayfinding signs associated with the Proposal will dominate the streetscape, cast excessive light spill, glare, and skyglow, and at night negatively and unreasonably impact the amenity of the public realm and surrounding residential uses.

The coastal context, biodiversity and local wildlife and bird populations are threatened by the excessive lighting involved in the proposal, the height of lighting fixtures, colour and colour temperature of lighting fixtures, scale and size of illuminated areas, and the hours in which the Applicant proposes that the external areas of the site will be illuminated and in which that light will be visible from outside of the premises.

The proposal will generate unreasonable amenity impacts to surrounding residential uses at night, through acoustic, light, glare, offensive odour, additional motor traffic on not just Hereford Road but also surrounding streets likely to be used in order to access the premises.

The Applicant has not demonstrated that lighting associated with the proposal will not threaten biodiversity, bird and other wildlife through noise, light, traffic, offensive odour, glare and contribution to skyglow and its placement in close proximity to sensitive lands that are inhabited by significant wildlife including threatened and endangered species.

The Applicant has not demonstrated suitable measures to screen the premises so that lighting in the premises does not illuminate neighbouring lands or structures.

The Applicant has not demonstrated suitable measures to prevent the emission of offensive odour from the premises.

The Proposal will create unacceptable discharge of stormwater due to the extent of its hardstand areas and lack of sufficient and acceptable systems for onsite stormwater detention.

The plantings in gardens associated with the Proposal include non-native vegetation that is at high risk of invasiveness due to spread of seed and self-propagation by spread of cuttings and prunings and the entry to the local waste system of the same.

The lack of sufficiently high screening for the site, of dark low reflective finish and lack of an acoustic tunnel for the drive through section will contribute to the propagation and spread of noise and light beyond the subject site particularly at night and significantly late at night.

The use of electronic ordering devices including loudspeaker type systems upon the Premises past the hours of 8pm daily and prior to 6am in a low density residential district will create unreasonable acoustic and amenity impacts upon the public realm and surrounding residential populations.

The Applicant has not demonstrated by reports of light, acoustic, environmental and social impact consultants that the Proposal will not generate unreasonable amenity impacts upon the public realm and the surrounding residential uses.

The Proposal will create unreasonable amenity impact upon the public realm and surrounding residential uses due to the emission and dispersal of offensive odour particularly during peak trading periods.

The Proposal will create unreasonable amenity impact due to the encouragement of birds and vermin to congregate upon the subject site and surrounding areas seeking to consume litter abandoned by patrons of the premises.

The Proposal will create unreasonable social impact through the promotion of energy dense and nutrient poor foods directly to children via its display of images of food and beverage offerings and prices on billboards or banners hung or otherwise erected upon the site.

The Proposal will create unreasonable local traffic impacts and potential for vehicle conflicts due to significant volumes of vehicles entering and exiting the site and the impacts extending to surrounding local streets, impact pedestrian safety, and increase noise associated with the traffic.

The Proposal responds poorly to the matters in the C189yran Amendment of the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

The Proposal responds poorly to Clause 32.09-14 Decision guidelines for Neighbourhood Residential Zone 2 (NRZ2) in the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, relevantly:
Non-residential use and development
In the local neighbourhood context:
■Whether the use or development is compatible with residential use.
■Whether the use generally serves local community needs.
■The scale and intensity of the use and development.
■The design, height, setback and appearance of the proposed buildings and works.
■The proposed landscaping.
■The provision of car and bicycle parking and associated accessways.
■Any proposed loading and refuse collection facilities.
■The safety, efficiency and amenity effects of traffic to be generated by the proposal.

The Proposal responds poorly to the Decision Guidelines at 7.0 in the Schedule to the NRZ2 of the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, relevantly:
Decision guidelines
The following decision guidelines apply to an application for a permit under Clause 32.09, in addition to those specified in Clause 32.09 and elsewhere in the scheme which must be considered, as appropriate, by the responsible authority:
■The development or subdivision is of a scale and size consistent with the unique character and special features of the rural townships and foothills areas.
■Subdivision and development should be less dense than that which occurs within the General Residential Zone or the Neighbourhood Residential Zone Schedules 1 and 2.
■Subdivision and development should minimise site coverage and maintains natural and established vegetation cover.

The Proposal responds poorly to the matters in Clause 43.02-6 Decision Guidelines for the Design and Development Overlay 5 (DDO5) in the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

The site is located in a Least Change Area according to the C189yran Amendment to the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

The Proposal fails to respond appropriately to the Design Objectives and Decision Guidelines in the Schedule to the DDO5 in the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

The Proposal fails to respond appropriately to the matters in Clause 42.03 Significant Landscape Overlay (SLO) of the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

The Proposal fails to respond appropriately to Schedule 22 to Clause 42.03 Significant Landscape Overlay (SLO22) of the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

The Proposal fails to respond appropriately to the Clause 44.06 Bushfire Management Overlay (BMO) in the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme.

The Proposal responds poorly to Council's policies relating to activity centres, out of centre development and non-residential uses in residential zones.

The subject land is not in an Activity Centre. There is legal precedent to refuse this proposal on this Ground alone, and I rely upon an authority where VCAT upheld a Council's refusal of a convenience restaurant proposal that was outside an Activity Centre:
AA Holdings Pty Ltd v Mornington Peninsula SC [2021] VCAT 1441

The Proposal is not an acceptable planning outcome noting reference to the relevant legal authorities:
Knox CC v Tulcany [2004] VSC 375 18 VPR 229
Rozen & Anor v Macedon Ranges Shire Council & Anor [2010] VSC 583 (14 December 2010)
Cysur Developments Pty Ltd v Merri-bek CC [2023] VCAT 1104