RFI Response Letter

proposed here) are provided with access at an exit or service road and allow for convenient re-entry to
the highway.

The applicant has engaged Race Property to provide initial advice on the lease of the
site/development. Race Property has received expressions of interest from recognised service station
operators who are interested in the purchase or lease of the site/development once Council approval
is obtained.

It is reiterated that there is a recognised need for a service station that services a highway catchment in
this location. The nearest service stations that are adjacent to the Bruce Highway are approximately 30
kilometres to the north and south of the subject site. The site is elevated above, and is clearly visible
from, the Bruce Highway. The proposed service station and other uses are orientated towards and are
clearly visible from the Bruce Highway and will service highway needs.

2.   Further analysis addressing the above issues and demonstrating the development will have
     acceptable levels of impact on the two service stations in Cooroy. The distribution of impacts could
     be outlined based on sales generated from the trade area, as compared with traffic along the
     Bruce Highway.

Response
Urban Economics provides the following response:

        Distribution of impacts at Pomona are estimated to be half of the impact on service stations at
         Cooroy. (2.5% c.f. 5%). Matching impacts of 11% on the individual facilities are an anomaly of
         the estimated fuel sale volumes for each service station; not a matching distribution of
         attributed impacts.

        By their nature, service stations have a very dispersed market. Yes, potentially the proposed
         development could attract a third of the trade area market being that there would be three (3)
         service stations. But this would not be the only source of trade for any single facility, which
         would each, similarly to the proposed service station, have a level of rogue trade. The BP
         facilities within Cooroy for example would also have custom from other areas such as
         Noosaville and Pomona and visitors to the township.

        Whilst having different operators, both of the existing Cooroy service stations retail BP fuel
         products and neither offer E10, with price and location being the only differentiator. A new
         operator and brand at the subject site could be expected to attract trade from residents of the
         defined Trade Area, despite being a-central to populated areas of the catchment as residents
         seek choice and convenience. The heightened level of market share that the proposed
         development has been estimated to attract (30%) is an outcome of a lack of choice for
         residents in Cooroy, rather than a need for this trade to support the proposed development
         which will primarily support motorists of the M1/A1.

        Moreover, residents of the Trade Area may currently be directing their fuel expenditure
         outside the Trade Area in search of fuel operators and pricing strategies that better meet their
         motoring needs and expectations. The introduction of a new, modern fuel retailing facility to
         Cooroy is expected to retain a level of expenditure on fuel that is otherwise escaping outside
         the Trade Area.

        The inclusion of drive-through fast-food facilities within the proposed development which are
         otherwise not available throughout the Shire, would draw a level of custom for the co-located
         fuel facilities at the subject site.

3.   Further information in relation to the take up rate and the number of years supply of vacant
     industry land in the Cooroy area to support the EIA conclusion there will be no impact on
     industrial land.