By Violet Li
The old site of the Hampton Park Food Market may finally see a new development after sitting empty for over 5 years. However, the landowner says the development is now being held up by a “minor” amendment approval.
As the owner of the block of land at 65 Hallam Road next to the Hampton Park Shopping Centre, Ms Le has been waiting for five months for the outcome of a planning amendment.
The council sent an email to her town planner to inform her that the allocated planning officer went on leave in November last year and ever since then, she didn’t know who was looking at the application.
She was only told this week that a new planning officer was assigned to look at the application.
Ms Le said it was a Section 72 application to amend a planning permit, and she had support from the council in a pre-meeting.
Therefore, she believed it shouldn’t take the council this long to process.
“Everything is dependent on this permit to move forward,” she said.
“I’m waiting for the amendment to be approved because we’re ready to proceed.
“I was hoping I would have the amendment approved before Christmas only to hear a new officer has just been allocated.”
Ms Le said she simply wanted to build something there.
“I have been associated with the site for over 20 years and I’m doing everything I can to build something there for the people of Hampton Park,” she said.
“It doesn’t give me any joy to leave it empty because the land tax and holding costs are very costly.”
According to Ms Le, the current planning permit has one level of basement parking, one level of retail, one level of commercial, and more than 100 apartments.
She was granted the planning permit in 2019 and the subsequent planning endorsement in late 2022. The project was then paused for a year because of the astronomical increase in construction costs.
The situation stabilised last year, and Ms Le eventually submitted the planning amendment in August 2024. Now, she is waiting for this final step before everything else can move on.
When inquired, Casey Council stated that they could not advise a specific timeline for a decision for an active application until the review had been completed.
