Greens Member for Maiwar Michael Berkman says the private developer who now owns the former ABC site in Toowong is trying to break Council's rules with its recently lodged Development Application.
Michael Berkman:
“Council’s plan to create a small park at the ABC site as part of the Toowong to West End green bridge is bittersweet.
“It’s a win for our long-running campaign to use that land for public green space and a bridge, but a reminder of the missed opportunity for Council and the State Government to work together to buy back the whole site for a real city-making project.
“Now we’re seeing what happens when you hand over precious riverfront land to a private developer - they’ll try to wring it for every drop of profit they can.
“I am concerned that the developer is trying to break Council’s rules by failing to set aside the whole river frontage for public access, as required in the Neighbourhood Plan, and instead proposing to build an apartment block right up to the riverbank, preventing public access to most of it.
“I find it totally unacceptable that the developer would try to flout the rules like this and I’ll be doing everything I can to hold them to account.
“They will be making enormous profits from this project and locals deserve a significant part of this land to be preserved for genuinely accessible public green space.
“Even the heritage-listed Middenbury House will be turned into a retail venue for private profit, when it could have been gifted to the public as a community venue for local performances, meetings and events.
“Even worse, our broken planning laws mean the developer is trying to push all of this through as ‘code assessable’, which would mean the community has no real consultation or appeal rights despite significant public interest.
“I’ll be pushing to ensure locals get a say in what happens at this site, and long term we need to scrap code assessment for major developments like this.”