Oporto restaurant and major service centre planned for Leeds Parade site – Central Western Daily

A $6 million development featuring a highway service centre and an Oporto restaurant has been recommended for approval by Orange City Council. The complex is proposed for a 12-hectare site on grazing land on the south-west corner of Leeds Parade and the Northern Distributor Road roundabout opposite Bunnings. Council will consider the DA at its monthly meeting on Tuesday night. The development would include a service station and convenience store, two takeaway food and drink premises (one with a drive-through to be operated by Oporto) an in-house dining area and dedicated amenities for truck drivers. The service station would have two separate refuelling areas, with one dedicated to heavy vehicles including 26m B-double trucks, parking for 42 cars and nine large trucks, large business signs and landscaping. The highway service centre is proposed to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A new road would be constructed off Leeds Parade to provide access to the service centre and connect to the NDR opposite Bunnings. A large water retention basin is also planned for a corner of the site next to the Orange-Dubbo railway line. Three trees, a pear, prunus and a eucalypt plus two old farm buildings would be demolished to make way for the development. Oporto would be welcome in town after a poll of 6280 people by the Central Western Daily in 2017 identified the Portugese chicken chain as the top fast food restaurant people wanted in Orange. A report to the council meeting recommends the DA be approved. It said the DA was submitted last September and issues relating to zoning and the affect on the rail corridor had been resolved. The developer has since submitted a separate plan to rezone another part of the land, which borders the railway line, from light industrial to tourist, bringing it in line with the service centre’s site zoning. That would allow for another food and drink premises to be built. “The applicant’s planning proposal is a separate matter to this development application and remains in its infancy,” the council report said. Council has received three objections to the plan. One was from John Holland Rail, the railway line administrators, about the development’s impact on the railway during construction. Two nearby land owners were concerned about increased traffic and noise and that it might limit access to their property.