'No Marrickville Metro expansion' signs are all over Marrickville Road shopping strip. Shop owners say Metro destroyed Marrickville & Illawarra Roads shopping strips when it was built. An expansion will cause death to the local strip
Marrickville Chamber of Commerce are holding a march against the proposed Marrickville Metro expansion. They say if the expansion goes ahead it will destroy Marrickville shopping strip as well as have a negative impact on the local area.
Local Marrickville shops will close their doors from 3.30pm to 4.15pm to participate.
Marrickville Council is strongly against the Metro expansion & the Councillors are unanimous in their opposition saying Metro shouldn’t have been allowed in this site in the first place.
If the Metro expansion goes ahead the negative impact on the community will be huge. In order to give us the kind of shops like the ones we can access close-by at Roselands, Eastgardens or Broadway shopping malls, the expanded Metro will –
- destroy local shopping strips in Marrickville & Illawarra Roads, Enmore Road & King Street South
- create traffic gridlock from 5 million extra vehicle movements a year
- create local parking problems due to staff cars
- create more noise & air pollution
- give us a looming building in a heritage residential area
- result in the potential loss of 142 beautiful trees (equivalent to a park)
An extra 5 million vehicles a year will be devastating. Our roads are not built to cope with this. Try driving up Victoria Road towards Enmore on a Friday afternoon. Even at 2.30pm the traffic is gridlocked with many drivers deciding to do a u-turn & try another route. The new Annette Kellerman Pool in Enmore is due to open in December bringing more traffic to the area.
You can access the plan at the NSW Department of Planning website under Major Works – Marrickville Metro Part 3A (MP009_0191).
The March Against Metro Expansion needs as many people from the community to participate to send a loud message to Minister Camel Tebbutt, Minister Anthony Albanese, the Minister for Planning & AMP Capital that shop owners & the community do not want the Metro expansion to be passed. It’s in the community’s interest to keep our shopping strips viable.
WHEN: Wednesday 17th November 2010
WHERE: Meet at corner of Victoria & Marrickville Roads Marrickville
TIME: 3.30pm to 4.15pm
You can read more about the Metro expansion here – https://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/marrickville-metro-expansion/
SAVING OUR TREES - Marrickville municipality 
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November 12, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Robert
We’re a growing population. At this stage, for mall like stores people are already having to drive out of the area. Perhaps rather than trying to stop it, we should be looking at how to make it more effective and sensitive to the area. So allowing for better public transport access so staff don’t need to drive there.
I live in Newtown, and I go to the metro for very different items compared to what I by from street stores. I suspect the same is true for many others.
As to the loss of trees, this should be minimised. New trees planted where appropriate to assist with the character of the area and the needs of local bird populaitons.
The building design should be made to fit in as much as it is possible for a large structure to do so. Given however the nearby street or so are hideous commercial warehouses, it’d be hard to make it worse.
So basically rather than a knee-jerk reaction, or self serving concern from those who bought right near a mall, we should argue to make it better, not to leave the metro as the dump that it is.
November 16, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Anna
Yes I agree with a lot of what you have to say Robert, and a lot of people, myself included, would love to see the Metro “revitalised” as promoted in their literature and website, but that was false promotion because it omitted to include “huge expansion” in the information put out, until the plans were submitted, and for that reason many people in the community feel deceived. The fact is that the Metro/AMP do want more people to drive to a redeveloped centre that is why they are expanding it with the intention of including more national brand retailers and a THIRD large supermarket – and most people by necessity (or inclination, or ignorance of the impact on the environment) will drive cars to do their large weekly grocery shopping :-((
And that exacerbates the existing problem of narrow local roads being unable to cope with the traffic congestion now – unfortunately the new Metro plans have no solution to resolve this problem in the future either.
You are absolutely right, the plans should aim for a structure that suits the surroundings and blend in more, but please remember that the nearby streets you mention include small tidy Federation houses on 3 sides, so it is rather rude to characterise the area as ‘hideous’ !!! In fact, it is quite pleasant walking through the residential streets with the nearby park, when going to the centre. The back section is industrial, as you say, and any expansion there will not be detrimental, however the other 3 sides where the centre interfaces with homes should have minimum negative impact. It is interesing to note that when the centre was first developed in the 80s there was apparently a lot of negotiation and planning and re-planning between the developer and council – in order to minimise impact on the surrounding residential area. So it should follow that the same sensitivity to the amenity of “people who bought right near a mall” also apply now. Surely everyone has equal right to the quiet enjoyment of their homes. Hopefully the community feedback will result in improvements to the centre that will benefit shoppers without eroding the amenity of residents – that would be a happy result for all!
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I would like to add that Marrickville Council and all the Councillors as well as Marrickville Chamber of Commerce have been very against any expansion of Marrickville Metro from the start. See – https://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/09/22/report-from-the-gallery-–-21st-september-2010-–-part-1-–-marrickville-metro/ Jacqueline