Just how many fast food restaurants does Fairy Meadow really need?
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In a 270-metre stretch of the Princes Highway between the Mt Ousley Road and McGrath Street intersections there are already seven outlets - one for every night of the week.
Fairy Meadow residents already have the option of pizza, burgers, subway sandwiches, chicken or steak.
A franchise hoping to open on the corner next to KFC on McGrath Street wants to add Mexican to the suburb's dining options.
Guzman y Gomez has lodged a development application with Wollongong City Council to build a take-away only restaurant on the corner.
It would be the region's first stand-alone Guzman y Gomez store - the other stores are located in Wollongong Central and Stockland Shellharbour.
An application for a Unanderra store was lodged earlier this year.
There is only a handful of seats in the store, for those waiting to pick up their take-away order.
In a 270-metre stretch of the Princes Highway at Fairy Meadow there are already seven fast food outlets.
The application wants the restaurant to be open 24 hours a day seven days a week, however in prelodgement meetings council officers told them that would not be supported due to nearby residences.
The applicant called for that to be reconsidered, noting noise from the drive-through would be no worse that what was already coming from traffic on the Princes Highway.
There was also concern from council about the 14 customer parking spaces due to the possibility of people eating their meals on site, which is not allowed in the land zoning.
To counter that, the applicant said a 30-minute parking limit could be imposed "to ensure food is purchased and consumed off-site in accordance with the relevant land use definition".
The plans show a vehicle entry and exit point on McGrath Street with two lanes for ordering then merging into one for the payment and food pick-up windows.
In terms of traffic, a study suggested it would create less than the 120 vehicles per hour during the evening peak hour of the KFC across the road.
"Guzman Y Gomez is less well-known and not as established in Australia as either McDonalds or KFC outlets, and is therefore likely to have traffic generation rates less than KFC outlets," it stated.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
