The Hervey Bay Town Plan - A Councillor Has Her Say
The view from the Hervey Bay Council Chambers
When the Hervey Bay Town Plan was released the week before last the Hervey Bay Gossip just had to add it’s 2 cents worth to the debate. Over the weekend Hervey Bay Councillor Sue Brooks took the time to add some comments to the piece.
Those comments are important and deserve their own entry here on the Gossip. Councillor Brooks makes some important points about the town plan and she also gives us an insight into what happens at council meetings.
I am but one Councillor in a group of eight. I firmly believe that Hervey Bay is threatened with over development especially and specifically high density development concentrated anywhere that provides a view of our Bay. Most obviously this is concentrated along our Esplanade.
I am sad to say that I am quite alone in my views. I repeatedly have voted against developments that breach our town plan guidelines but am consistently the only ‘no’ vote.
Yes I have supported the new Planning Scheme. Troubling as the extra height allowance is the alternative to supporting the new planning scheme was to leave the city with no planning scheme at all. The old scheme, even if it could have been extended past December 15th, was permitting more high density over a greater part of the city. I felt caught quite literally between a rock and a hard place.
The new scheme can now be amended. I have tried already to have the maximum height reduced back to the six storey limit and failed. (Cr McNeven and myself voted for this prior to adopting the scheme but received no support from any other Councillor).
The new scheme protects vegetation, recognises wetlands and water ways and has other features which make it superior to the old scheme.
I will continue to lobby as strongly as I can against high density tall buildings but feel quite powerless to effect change without support from my fellow Councillors.
Can I please ask members of the community who share my concerns about high density to lobby Councillors directly. I fear our Esplanade will become a tourist strip catering predominantly for tourists.
December 18th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
thanks for you comments councillor brooks. I believe that a significant majority of hervey bay residents share your concerns about the lack of oversight regarding overdevelopment. hervey bay is in a stage of development where we can significantly control its future ‘look and feel’. its hard to understand the motivations behind the councillors who are pro-development; particularily when they offer none themeselves.