Councillor urges community to fight for admin building redevelopment

Cr Law adresses the recent Chamber of Commerce event last week.

By Cameron Outridge

Division 10 Cr David Law - Division 10 has urged Nambour’s business community to demand that the Sunshine Coast Council reinstate the redevelopment of the Nambour library, Eddie DeVere administration building and surrounding streetscape into next year’s budget.

Speaking at the Nambour Chamber of Commerce Coffee Catchup on August 7, Cr Law said the project – which included a new library, expanded community meeting spaces, admin offices upgrades and a full streetscape upgrade for the corner of Bury and Currie streets – had been pushed back six years in the latest council budget.

“Up until the budget of last month, we were going to start work on creating a new library, a new forecourt area, a full streetscape development as per Region Focus Area 4 in the revitalisation project,” Cr Law said. “It would have completely transformed the corner of Bury Street and Currie Street where the council building is.”

The redevelopment, Cr Law said, would have provided facilities not just for Nambour but for the wider hinterland. “It would’ve given us all a brand new library … It would’ve also included community meeting spaces greater than what we have. There is a huge demand for community meeting spaces because we get requested for it all the time – ‘I need somewhere to do this event, I want a show, I want a meeting, but I can’t find anywhere to go’.”

He said the decision to defer the project left him angry but determined to get it back in the budget.

“We’ve missed out on it because the mayor and the councillors did not support me to keep this project in the budget this year. It should be starting this year … It’s been put back six years,” he told the Chamber of Commerce meeting.

“I encourage you to write to the mayor and the other councillors and say, ‘we want that back in next year’s budget’. We need that back in our budget next year. I can’t do that on my own.”

Calling the redevelopment “the biggest investment in Nambour and the hinterland since last century”, Cr Law said it would signal confidence to private investors. “There are other people coming in and buying up the commercial properties in Nambour and they’re waiting to see what happens. But they’re not doing anything yet. They need a trigger. They need something to tell them that yes, Nambour is the place of the future.”

He stressed Nambour’s role as one of the Sunshine Coast’s three “major centre zones” alongside Caloundra and Maroochydore. “It always has been… and it will be a major centre in the future. But we need to start the investment. It was going to start right now … but I didn’t get the support to keep it that way. We need our investment in the hinterland now, and I’ll be really grateful for your support.”

While disappointed about the larger project’s delay, Cr Law confirmed that the Nambour Place Plan, a CBD streetscaping project, would still go ahead. He said just over $1 million had been budgeted to start work on Mill Street by the end of this year. He hoped the works could extend to the state-controlled Currie Street with the help of State MP for Nicklin Marty Hunt.

“That will make a dramatic, significant difference to that project,” he said. “But it is only a small part of what should be happening right now, which is the redevelopment of Bury Street, the library, that community space right in the heart of Nambour … It will encourage others to invest in their properties and bring our town back to even better than what it has ever been before.”