Cr Law hears united ‘no’ as Nambour fights Howard Street car park sale

Cr Law “When you have an option of, ‘Please, can you give me a car park, please can give me somewhere to live,’ where do you think my immediate response is going to be?” he said.

Division 10 councillor David Law says he has heard the community’s opposition to the proposed sale of the Howard Street/Sydney Street car park “without a shadow of a doubt”, but stopped short of revealing how he will vote when the matter returns to council.

Speaking to a packed Nambour Chamber of Commerce meeting at Cultivate the Chaos on April 2, Cr Law faced sustained questioning over the proposal to sell the 76-space council-owned car park to Coast2Bay Housing for a mixed-use development.

Business owners, health practitioners and community advocates used the forum to press the councillor on the practical consequences of losing one of the CBD’s most important parking areas, with concerns centred on access, business viability, disability parking and the broader future of the town centre.

Cr Law began by stressing the proposal was not new, saying council and the housing provider had been working in various forms towards a mixed-use project on the site since 2009.

He said council decisions relating to the site had occurred in 2009, 2016 and 2023, though he acknowledged some of those processes had been confidential.

Cr Law also placed the proposal in the wider context of the housing crisis, drawing on his background in disability and community services.

“When you have an option of, ‘Please, can you give me a car park, please can give me somewhere to live,’ where do you think my immediate response is going to be?” he said.

“I want somewhere for people to live ... we need places for people to live ... we cannot build them fast enough.”

Still, the meeting showed just how strongly Nambour’s business community opposes the loss of the car park.

Asked why the reaction had been so strong, Cr Law said it came down to livelihoods. “The reaction is so strong because of people’s businesses, people’s livelihood,” he said. “They’re really, really important.”

That concern was reinforced throughout the question-and-answer session.

One tenant told Cr Law the Howard Street car park was effectively the only parking available for her business and warned that if it disappeared, “so does our business”.

Absolute Health Chiropractic & Physiotherapy director Steele Anderson said the issue was one affecting real people needing care.

“As a medical clinic owner/practitioner in Nambour, I rely on the Howard Street car park for my staff and my patients,” he said during the broader campaign against the sale.

GP Edward Scott also told the meeting the car park was “vital” for nearby medical businesses and patients, particularly the elderly.

“You can’t expect a 90-year-old with a wheelie walker to walk from the council car park … all the way down to see us at the medical centre,” Dr Scott said.

Cr Law repeatedly acknowledged those points. “I understand and hear totally clearly your perspective and the importance of that block of land over there,” he said. “And I will do everything I can to represent the views of this community.”

But when asked directly how he would vote, he would not commit.

“I have never said to anyone how I am going to vote on the day about anything at all,” he said. “I will tell you that I have always voted with what I believe is the best for the community that I’m hearing.”

One of the most significant moments came when he acknowledged the risk council would lose control of the site if it sold the land.

“One of the biggest risks of this proposal in its current state is once the land is sold, the control the council has over what the outcome is, is reduced,” he said. “At the moment, council owns that land and freehold.”

That admission appeared to strengthen concerns already held by many in the room.

Cr Law said the earlier withdrawal of the item from the council agenda was itself a sign the community had made an impact.

“The item was withdrawn from the agenda a week ago. That is … a response to all of your voices,” he said. “In my six years of experience, I have not known such a unified response like this one to any matter whatsoever.”

Mitchell Street option discussed

The meeting also canvassed the possibility of an alternative site, with someone suggesting the “underused” car park at the corner of Mitchell Street and Mill Lane was a possible option for future housing discussions.

Cr Law tested that idea with the room, asking whether anyone would object to that site being used for some sort of housing project. No objections were raised in the meeting.

By the end of the session, Cr Law appeared in no doubt about the message he had received from the town.

“You have told me without a shadow of a doubt, the best use of the land over here is for car parking,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether that message will ultimately count when council votes in seven weeks time.