Developer high rise interest pushed Bay Masterplan
By Phil Herrick
If there has been one question many people have asked of the draft Batemans Bay masterplan it’s this… “Who asked for Gold Coast style 100 metre skyscrapers in our small south coast town? Where did this idea come from?”
Now we have a clear answer… it was the council. And the reason? Because a developer interested in buying the old Bay Bowling Club site will only put money on the table if they can build a high rise hotel and apartment block.
The council is keen to sell the land to raise money to help cover some of the huge losses operating the Bay Pavilions next door to the development site.
These answers surfaced when the topic was discussed on Tuesday this week at the meeting of the Eurobodalla Shire Council in Moruya.
It also became clear there was no serious community consultation before the draft plan was published, meaning debate about the plan would focus on height limits.
According to Cr Anthony Mayne the developer talked of a building up to 70 metres high, but for no obvious reason the council’s draft plan pushed that up to 100 metres. It seems the council may have floated 100 metre limits knowing the idea will draw a negative response so they can fall back to 70 metres as a compromise acceptable to the community and sell the block of land.
Four members of the public spoke to council about the masterplan on Tuesday, with one, Frank Ross, summing it up as “a real estate development plan masquerading as a masterplan.
All the public speakers were critical of the plan, most focusing on a process that did not include the community. The 75 year time span of the draft plan and the failure to integrate all the existing documents that cover development in Batemans Bay were also points of criticism.
Kathryn Maxwell from SHASA told councillors the document had been “developed in a vacuum of strategic planning”
Steph Chiu, an architect and planner summed it up, saying “In my professional view, this document and exhibition process is disappointingly unprofessional, inconsistent, poorly written, and does not represent the Bay community.”
The trigger for the comments was a question on notice to council staff from Cr Mayne on aspects of the plan. He questioned the planning process, the strategy behind it and the exhibition process.
General Manager Mark Ferguson said external consultants will be bought in to conduct a probity review of the way the draft plan was developed by council staff.
This review is expected to check on council’s actions as the seller of the old bowling club site while also being the regulator of the height of buildings allowed on that land and proposing to change the height limit to progress the sale.
In a line that could have come from Sir Humphrey Appleby in the old TV show “Yes Minister”, general manager Ferguson said, “the council was courageous in putting out a 100 metre height limit plan”.
Courageous indeed.
The draft Batemans Bay masterplan is on exhibition for public comment until 30th June.
