A well-known Wodonga motel will be demolished and replaced by a service station and two fast food outlets under plans submitted to council for approval.
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The Murray Valley Motel on Melbourne Road was constructed in the 1960s and then renovated in the past decade by owner Clinton Williams.
The planning application for another 7 Eleven service station and Oporto and Carls Jr. Chargrilled Burgers food outlets has been submitted by planning consultants Urbis on behalf of Spectrum Retail Group.
Plans also show an additional "left out only" exit point onto Melbourne Road, located east of the existing entry, exit point on the Melbourne Road-Moorefield Park Drive roundabout.
According to planning documents submitted to council, the existing entry, exit point will be upgraded and divided by a "splitter island".
It will also be widened to enable trucks to enter the site and refill fuel bowsers.
A total of 34 car parking spaces will be created across the site, exceeding the requirement under council planning rules.
A development application has been lodged with Albury Council for another one on Urana Road, Lavington.
If the Melbourne Road project is approved, an estimated 190 full-time and part-time jobs will be created across the site.
A $3.9 million price tag has been put on the proposed development.
"(It) will replace an ageing building which is currently a sensitive use within an industrial precinct," the planning application states.
"The uses proposed will not only benefit workers in the direct vicinity of the site, but will provide a value food and fuel offering to the wider Wodonga area.
"The two convenience restaurants, take away food and drink premises and service station will increase the range and depth of commercial offerings and will increase the attractiveness of the overall industrial precinct to investment.
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"It is considered that this planning permit application reflects a well resolved development and we look forward to working with council to facilitate this high quality proposal."
Motels had their origins in the U.S. and one of the first built in Wodonga was further along Melbourne Road, the Twin City Motor Inn.
Originally known as the Club Motel, it was built in the late 1950s when accommodation of its type starting appearing across regional Victoria with the first opening at Bairnsdale, the Mitchell Valley Motel on the Princes Highway.
The same developers soon after built another motel at Merimubla.
Other motels built in Wodonga during this era were in High Street and Moorefield Park Drive ahead of the city being bypassed in the early 1980s.
The city's Drive-In Cinema located near the Murray Valley Motel also closed in the mid-1980s after opening in 1956.
Tom Pearsall and Cedric Frauenfelder were among the early developers of the area's motels.
The Border Morning Mail reported in October 1959, Wagga Road's Boomerang "hotel-motel was the first combined hotel-motel to be erected in Australia."
The recently renovated Astor Motel in central Albury was also built during this year.
The Border Mail attempted to contact Mr Williams for comment.
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