By CAROLINE STRAINIG
TOMORROW may be the last day you can ever have input into the development of Port Macquarie’s Plaza carpark site fronting Kooloonbung Creek.
More than 120 attended a public forum on Monday night organised by Port Macquarie Hastings Council to obtain community feedback on what should happen to the land, which Woolworths is negotiating with Crown Lands to buy.
Council is giving people who could not attend until midnight tomorrow to have their say via the website pmhclistening.com.au
The meeting room at the Glasshouse was filled to overflowing for the meeting on Monday evening, and council staff had to fetch extra chairs to accommodate all those who wanted to be involved.
Participants were divided into working groups around tables, with each table ‘hosted’ by a council staff member, who wrote down suggestions on a large sheet of paper and then read them out at the end of each of the three short think-tank sessions.
While no judgment was passed on Woolworths’ latest proposal because no details were provided at the meeting, attendees almost unanimously wanted a low-level environmentally sensitive development on the site with plenty of open space that would complement the foreshore. They also wanted it sold by a transparent public process in which council could have a say rather than a private negotiation.
Mayor Peter Besseling said afterwards he was very happy with the turnout and the level of interest residents continued to show in this important piece of community land.
“Two things were particularly apparent on the night,” he said. “The first is that people want to see integration between the site and the foreshore itself. The second is that people want any commercial development on that site to be aesthetically pleasing.
“Council is now in the process of compiling the information from Monday night, feedback on our pmhclistening website and from two ‘pop up’ community engagement sessions held on-site last Wednesday.”
He said the information would be presented to the State Government as part of a ‘public interest test’ process, with a request for a formal response.
“It is important to acknowledge the site as community land and that our community should have major input in determining what development occurs on the site. There is no capacity for this to occur once the site is sold,” Cr Besseling said.
“This public engagement process is not about selling an idea – it is about listening to the community and ensuring the community has a voice on the future of local public land.”
Have your say
Go to pmhclistening.com.au before midnight tomorrow night.
The story up until now
WOOLWORTHS already has a development application approved for a new supermarket on the adjacent Food for Less site. That involves building a new supermarket to occupy the same area as the existing old supermarket and with no additional car parking.
However, last year Woolworths decided it would like to buy part of the adjacent Plaza car park to enable it to build a larger supermarket. Having the extra land would also enable them to turn their supermarket sideways, have retail shops and cafes opening onto the foreshore and have a bigger setback from Kooloonbung Creek – building an arguably much more attractive and foreshore-friendly development than that already approved. They would also be able to provide at least as much parking as the Plaza car park currently accommodates, with parking open to the public as well as Woolworths’ customers.
Crown Lands has been negotiating privately with Woolworths over a possible sale because they consider Woolworths the obvious party to buy the land because of their interest in the adjacent Food for Less site. Council only became aware of the negotiations late last year when it was asked to give in-principle approval to a possible sale to Woolworths because it is the technical reserve trust manager for the Plaza car park.
Mayor Peter Besseling is adamant if the land is sold, it should go through a public expressions of interest process, and he has the full backing of his fellow councillors, who unanimously refused to give in-principle approval for any Crown Lands sale. He believes Crown Lands has failed to satisfy the public interest test, which is one of the criteria it has to address for a private sale, hence the calling of the public forum on Monday night to seek public input and pass it onto Crown Lands.
The Port Macquarie property owners group and Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams have both held meetings/forums to discuss the development in the past six weeks.
