Council vote on CBD development deferred for 8 weeks
Sunshine Coast Council CEO John Baker “A deferment of the process will allow us to hear what people have to say, and also to explain how the process works and to allay fears.”
In response to the swift and passionate outpouring of feedback from Nambour’s business and general community regarding the upcoming Sunshine Coast Council vote on the sale of a council-owned CBD car park to a community housing provider, CEO John Baker has deferred the vote for 2 months.
At the Thursday March 26 ordinary meeting, councillors were to consider a recommendation to sell the 46–62 Howard Street site to Coast2Bay Housing Group Limited to enable the delivery of social and affordable homes.
The news of this item in recent days was met with a great deal of anxiety from the community, specifically because of the concern that 40 valuable and free public car parking spaces would potentially be lost.
Speaking at a Nambour Groups meeting at Namba Place today, Mr Baker expressed his wish to pause the process to allow Council the opportunity to hear from the community about their concerns.
“A deferment of the process will allow us to hear what people have to say, and also to explain how the process works and to allay fears,” Mr Baker told the meeting.
“Whilst we are pausing the process, we want the process to happen, because having more affordable, key worker housing is important for Nambour.
“The site in question has been zoned for residential development for many years and it was never the plan that it would be a carpark forever. It is prime land for development and it is important that the site is used to its full potential. As part of this process, the council will need to find a way to address car parking in the CBD,” he said.
Mr Baker expressed his thoughts that there were a lot of misconceptions about the process and his belief that “we haven’t taken people along with us, and we need to hear what people have to say.”
I Am Nambour spokeswoman, Rhonda Billet, presented Mr Baker with a range of documents including formal letters from I Am Nambour and the Nambour Chamber of Commerce board, Peter Clark, and a letter and petition from the business owners in Queen Street.