The City of Melbourne’s planning committee has voted to support amendments to a 2003 development plan for the Costco Docklands store.  Sonic Healthcare submitted amendments to the 2003 permit with the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning (DTP). The City of Melbourne Council is the referral authority. The amendment added a development centre as a land use to existing uses for the 26,800sq m site at 331-381 Footscray Road, Docklands. Existing uses included bulky goods, homemaker and retail.  The City of Melbourne’s planning committee, the Future Melbourne Committee, voted to support the proposal and to advise the DTP accordingly. Costco Docklands is still the listed owner of the site on the planning documents but Sonic purchased the site for a reported $100 million this year.  It was submitted to the DTP’s fast-tracked program, the Development Facilitation Program (DFP), under the criteria of creating jobs.  The existing permit from November 2003 allows internal fitout changes, additional windows, landscaping and improving the thermal performance of the building. A two-storey warehouse and 550 carparking bays—480 within the undercroft—occupy the site.  The amendment includes a modification to reduce this to 488 carparking bays with 106 bicycle storage spaces.  ▲ Costco ’ s former Docklands site, which has now been sold to Sonic Healthcare for a Melbourne Pathology hub. Sonic wants to use the site for a Melbourne Pathology hub with an estimated development cost of $92 million, according to planning documents. Nettleton Tribe Architects designed the adaptive reuse plans for the site with the project expected to create 600 jobs initially before expanding to 720.  It is also expected to bring in $5.9 million to the local economy each year.  The plans now go back to the DTP with the Victorian planning minister as the determining authority.  Costco moved the Docklands operations to a larger location at Ardeer. 
