Council angry over State ban on river development
Deputy premier Paul Lucas came under fire at this week’s Brisbane City Council meeting as he was accused of being anti-development for the city.
Cr Amanda Cooper said Paul Lucas’s decision to reject the development at the Howard Smith Wharves was inconsistent and against city development.
The chair of council’s neighbourhood planning and development assessment committee told the meeting of a number of other development decisions, past and present, that were all totally flood prone just like the Howard Smith Wharves.
Cr Cooper flourished an aerial photo showing the area wasn’t totally inundated as the deputy premier had claimed as his reason for the decision.
“The minister didn’t really have a very good look at the actual picture of what happens down at Howard Wharves,” she said.
Cr Cooper said the state government’s decision wasn’t in the best interests of a developing city like Brisbane.
“We note Brisbane Marketing on a regular basis saying ‘we need more hotels, we more facilities’,” she said.
A spokesman for Mr Lucas said that the site had evacuation issues different from other sites if flooded.
Seems like council’s collective memory is about 5 minutes long… hello massive floods in January? Mr Lucas is right- they do have different issues there regards evacutation. People will be totally trapped. At least this explains the council’s sudden enthusiasm for reinstating the floating walkway.
And what about all the planned development for the West End peninsular near Davies Park? Totally flooded in January- unit owners can’t even insure themselves down there, combined with massive body corporate fees from the flood repairs should altert the council that the land is not suitable.
Riversides should be for parks and community gardens, higher ground for medium density unit blocks. I wouldn’t like to see a concrete corridor along our waterways. Riversides for non mechanical commuting and recreation- jogging without having to stop to cross roads, and for community gardens, picnics, dog parks, skate parks- not socially exclusive developments.
The called Waterfront Place and the other posh office developments along Eagle St ‘the Golden Triangle’, that was until the floods renamed them ‘the Bermuda Triangle’ hehe, BCC.