A new 119-room hotel could be built at the entrance to Ballarat, but could cause traffic issues with guests expected to use country back roads to access the property.
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A planning permit application for the large development at 63 Mahers Road, Warrenheip has been lodged with the City of Ballarat by developer Forte Group with plans including a two-storey hotel building with a function and hospitality area, a courtyard and pool at its centre and a 171-space car park.
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The property fronts the Western Highway and comes under the Woodmans Hill Gateway Precinct Master Plan which intends to guide the development of the eastern entrance to the city, but was identified in the plan to be retained as farming zone land.
The hotel is proposed to sit in the middle of the property with landscape plans showing the property fronts the Western Highway, with a fruit orchard proposed to be planted along the highway frontage along with a gin distillery on-site and olive orchard.
With no direct highway access, vehicles are proposed to use either the Mahers Road or the unsealed Greene Road to access the property, with the front entrance of the hotel accessed via Greene Road.
According to the application's traffic report, vehicles travelling from Melbourne via the Western Highway are anticipated to use Greene Road to access the site while vehicles travelling from Ballarat are expected to use Old Melbourne Road and Mahers Road.
Departing vehicles are expected to use both roads to leave the property, with those travelling east towards Melbourne are expected to turn right from Old Melbourne Road or make a u-turn on the Western Highway at Brewery Tap Road.
The traffic report states 'the level of traffic generated as a result of this proposal will be adequately accommodated by the proposed site access connections and the surrounding road network and intersections without any unacceptable impacts'.
With the development expected to create additional traffic along the two roads, the application documents say a number of upgrades will be required to the road network, including a left-turn lane at the Western Highway-Greene Road intersection, sealing and widening of Greene Road, gravel passing areas on both Greene Road and Mahers Road.
However, while 63 Mahers Road lies within the City of Ballarat, it is right on the council border with Greene Road coming under the jurisdiction of Moorabool Shire Council.
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International hotel business IHG has signed on to run the hotel, which will be operate as the Holiday Inn and Suites Ballarat Goldfields.
Forte Group project manager Mark Huang said the Thomastown-based developer had been in close contact with council regarding the zoning and road access.
"I believe the neighbouring use is actually a mixed use zone and it's in the gateway precinct and that's been identified for development and we just see this as an opportunity to I guess invest in the area," he said.
"We think there's an opportunity here and even though it is zoned as a farming zone, we've engaged agricultural consultants to study the land and we've actually incorporated a bit of agricultural use into our plans as well."
Mr Huang said Forte Group was in discussions regarding a potential upgrade for Greene Road, but could not confirm at this stage if the works were the responsibility of the developer, council or VicRoads.
"One of the recommendations from our traffic engineers is to do an upgrade of Greene Road. As developers, we want our hotel product to be a pleasant experience, of course," he said.
"The sense of arrival to a hotel is very important and Greene Road being the main access road, upgrading that would boost the overall guest experience. It is one of our recommended actions to do an upgrade to Greene Road."
City of Ballarat chief executive Evan King said while council was in the early stages of assessing the application, conversations would be had with Moorabool regarding the development and Greene Road.
"Generally, road changes for planning permits become the responsibility of the developer in the end," he said.
"It's not necessarily a hiccup, it just means that the developer needs to be talking to Moorabool as well. We can put conditions on planning permits around requirements, it doesn't matter if that road is in another shire, we can still put conditions on the planning permit that requires those things to be done."
"When the planning department assesses it, they'll have a look at all those components and then determine who needs the planning permit referred to them for input."
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