The original plan would have seen the section of Main Street including the council-owned site to the east and some bowling club land radically transformed with a 7072 sq metre retail development encompassing a 4020sq m supermarket, 16 speciality shops, new council administration offices, library, community centre and parking for 694 cars. But bowling club members delivered a fatal blow to the plans fearful that access to their car parking would be compromised.

In early 2006 Merimbula Nominees lodged a significantly altered plan for a 4020 sq metre supermarket and associated car parking but months later council amended it Commercial Centre Strategy capping the size of commercial development in Merimbula to 2500 sq m or less.

This was rejected by the then Minister for Planning Frank Sartor who increased the cap size to 4000 sq m.

Merimbula Nominees lodged an amended development application with the council on October 2, 2008 for a 3800sq m supermarket and 287 on site car parks but this did not come before the council for approval until its meeting on Council June 8, 2010. The amended DA flagged the opportunity to access a rear service road off Sapphire Coast Drive in the future.

However the DA’s passage through the council was blocked because a Merimbula business owner addressed the council voicing his concerns that centred on the potential impact the development might have on his business during its construction. In keeping with the council’s meeting procedure a decision on the supermarket was deferred to enable the council to investigate the businessman’s concerns.

Six weeks passed and no action on the matter prompted the News Weekly to ask the council what had stalled the process.

Council’s development manager Keith Tull said that Merimbula Nominees had lodged another amended plan that develops the concept of rear access off Sapphire Coast Drive into a proposal. The other major difference is that the supermarket will now be located on the southern side of the land abutting the council property and not hard up against Club Sapphire as had been proposed.

Mr Tull said it was “a mirror reverse” of the building and it did not involve any reconfiguration of the design.

Mr Foley was pleased to learn about the new arrangement. “We had some real issues with the design that saw the supermarket development on our boundary; we did not want it there. The relocation of the building is acceptable to the club.”

The new plans would now have to be referred back to the regional traffic committee for approval.

He did not expect that the revised DA would be subjected to the public exhibition process.

He said the rear access proposal had come about as a result of significant community pressure to look for alternative access for delivery vehicles and the revised plans delivered that.

“The plan addresses a lot of the concerns raised; at the end of the day it is about the council wanting to get it right for the community and the applicant feels he has now addressed those concerns.”

Mr Tull said he expects there will be a noticeable reduction in Main Street traffic when the Tura Woolworths supermarket opens. He said it was likely that when Tura residents did come to town for a coffee or other shopping they would enter Merimbula from Sapphire Coast Drive at its intersection with Merimbula Drive.

“I expect they will avoid Main Street and the drop in traffic will be marked.”