A proposal to open a 24-hour McDonald’s in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern has been rejected by the council’s independent planning tribunal after opposition from police and community members.
Residents applauded after the local planning panel voted unanimously at a City of Sydney meeting on Wednesday night to block the $3m transformation of 153 Redfern Street into a 24/7 McDonald’s restaurant.
The fast food company’s request for more time to address community concerns was also rejected, with one member of the panel suggesting a deferral would be akin to putting “lipstick on what the community submissions largely believe to be a pig”.
The development application was referred to the planning panel after the council received 269 objections and two petitions garnering 1,123 signatures against the development, and only 17 supportive submissions.
The site, on the corner of Redfern and Regent streets and occupied by a tobacconist and a linen shop, would have been turned into a two-storey, 12-seater “takeaway food and drink premises” with the familiar glowing red and yellow signage.
Local police were against the proposal. Contacted by Guardian Australia on Wednesday, the force referred to the concerns it had raised in its submission to the council opposing the McDonald’s.
Snr Const Peter Langbein wrote in his submission that the area was “an already identified hotspot for crime” with “trending issues” including bike theft, other robberies and malicious damage.
He also referenced 28 reported non-domestic violence assaults that he said had been reported within the past 12 months in the area and suggested the location’s close proximity to Redfern train station made it “accessible for criminal behaviour”.
Police were concerned about noise and the potential for antisocial behaviour from people moving to or from other late-night premises.
Submissions from the community also raised concerns that McDonald’s typically “junior staff” would be ill-equipped to deal with such behaviour.
The City of Sydney’s local planning panel agreed the proposal “has not adequately addressed crime prevention”.
In its submission, Transport for NSW called on the council to acknowledge the lack of bicycle parking facilities and off-street loading zones near the site.
Other residents said they were concerned about “how the sudden influx of delivery drivers will be accommodated” and that a McDonald’s would be to the detriment of Redfern’s “character”.
While the proposal complied with local environmental planning height and floor space ratios, it does not align with standards for “heritage conservations” and “design excellence”, which require “respect” for the original building’s form.
The council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory panel also raised concerns including that there had been “no consultation with the Aboriginal community”.
The panel said the McDonald’s would undermine efforts to improve health outcomes in the community, especially given the location’s proximity to key amenities such as the Aboriginal Medical Service.
Associate Prof Stephanie Partridge, from the University of Sydney’s faculty of medicine and health, said the proposed McDonald’s was “really concerning” because it “it doesn’t really put the community’s needs first”.
In 2020 Partridge surveyed 233 Sydney suburbs with high proportions of young people – including Redfern – which found McDonald’s was the most common takeaway franchise on Uber Eats and that wealthier areas had more access to healthy food.
“Forty per cent of a young person’s daily energy intake is already from unhealthy foods – if this is the most accessible and affordable, that’s of course what they are going to reach for,” she said.
“Local councils and government really need to start thinking about how people access healthy and affordable foods more seriously.”
Before the planning panel rejected the proposal, McDonald’s Australia said the company saw “strong potential in Redfern” and the company would engage “openly” with the community over the coming weeks.
McDonald’s said if its development were approved it would create more than 100 local jobs and opportunities for community partnerships and sponsorships.
