Eat Street Site Plan in report to council meeting on 10 August 2016

Council will discuss its deal to let Chef’s Inc. run a food market in the Cleveland Library car park for up to 10 years

Changes to the licence for Chefs Inc. to run a food market in the Cleveland Library car park for up to ten years will be discussed by Redland City Council at it’s next meeting on Wednesday 12 July.

The discussion is scheduled to be in closed session without media or the public present.

In August 2016 the Council controversially approved a development application by Chefs Inc.

Following the meeting, a Council news release said Cleveland may soon be home to a new alfresco dining and entertainment experience.

The Council’s deal with Chefs Inc. was negotiated some months earlier, without a competitive tender process. Details of the arrangement have not been made publicly available.

Many Cleveland businesses opposed the proposed food market which would compete with existing businesses during the busier days of each week – from Friday to Sunday.

Nearby residents were concerned about the likelihood of noise disturbance including amplified music at the car park.

Nineteen car parks in the Cleveland CBD will be lost if the proposed development goes ahead.

Eleven months later, it seems that Chefs Inc. wants to renegotiate its deal with the Council.

Presumably, the business case is more problematic than originally anticipated and the developer is seeking a more favorable deal from the Council.

If so, it is a good example of why governments and councils should be very wary of entering into secret deals without using a properly structured competitive tender process.

Here is a link to the agenda for the Council meeting on 12 July 2017.

Sporting lands

277-293 Heinemann Road in Mount Cotton

Purchase of land at  277-293 Heinemann Road in Mt Cotton to meet Redland City’s future needs for sporting fields was announced by the Council on 27 June 2017.

It’s understood that this land was purchased from the Goleby family for more than $6 million.

Council decided in closed session to purchase this land at its meeting on 24 May 2017, with the report and its attachments to be maintained as confidential until settlement of the purchase.

Redlands2030 requested a copy of this report on 28 June, the day after Council announced that this land had been purchased. As at the time of this article being published, the report and its attachments have still not been made available.

Questions which may be of interest to residents and ratepayers include:

  • By what process was this particular block of land identified as the best opportunity for meeting the community’s need for additional sporting fields?
  • Did the Council get good value for money in buying this property?
  • Did any councillors have any conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest?

The minutes of Council’s meeting on 24 May, when the decision was made to buy this land, show no declarations of interest.

Councillors gagged on Toondah deal

Walker Group’s revised plan for dredging  wetlands and constructing 3,600 apartments.

If you have wondered why we hear so little about the controversial Toondah project from local councillors, it seems that Redland City Council’s contracts with the Walker Group include a provision which effectively gags councillors from saying anything negative about the proposal to dredge Ramsar wetlands and construct 3,600 apartments next to an updated ferry terminal.

It’s understood that this anti-democratic restraint on elected councillors’ right of free speech even applies to councillors elected in March 2016, after the Toondah agreement was entered into by Redland City Council.

On 24 December 2015, Redland City Council said “The [Toondah] Infrastructure Agreement will be made public in the New Year.” That was over 18 months ago. Since then not a word has been made publicly available.

What is the Council hiding from the community?

Unemployment in Redland City hits six year high

Redland City’s latest quarterly unemployment rate is a six year high of 6.86%.

This is higher than the 6.69% average for regional Queensland, 6.4% for all of Queensland and the Australian average unemployment rate of 5.9%.

Elsewhere in south east Queensland, latest unemployment rates are: Ipswich 7.7%, Logan City 5.6%, Brisbane 5.5%,Gold Coast 5.3%, Sunshine Coast 5.0%, Toowoomba 4.9%, Noosa 4.7%.

Since the Council’s Economic Development Framework was adopted in early 2015, Redland City’s unemployment rate has risen steadily.

A major deficiency of the proposed new Redlands Planning Scheme is its failure to plan for industrial and commercial development in Redland City.

In fact the city is going backwards. Just a few months ago the Council approved an application for residential development on land which for many years had been zoned for industry. During “ferocious debate”, Cr Murray Elliott described this as “planning on the run”.

Draft Local Government Infrastructure Plan consultation

A Draft Local Government Infrastructure Plan has been released for consultation until 16 August 2017

Redland City Council has released a Draft Local Government Infrastructure Plan (LGIP) for public consultation closing 16 August 2017.

The LGIP will form part of the new Redland City Plan once both have been through the necessary approval process.

The LGIP sets out Council’s plans for trunk infrastructure (e.g. roads, parks, water supply, waste water, stormwater) together with Council’s planning assumptions (e.g. population growth).

More information is available on the Council’s website.

Budget meeting on 26 June

Council adopted its 2017/18 budget at a special Meeting on 26 June. Here is a link to the meeting minutes , video recording and a Redlands2030 report.

Council to review investment attraction incentives

At the last general meeting on 21 June 2017 councillors discussed the incentives offered to developers of tourist accommodation and developments in the Cleveland CBD.

Councillors resolved to extend for six months these developer incentives packages which offer 100% reductions of development assessment fees and infrastructure charges. Meanwhile the Council will attempt to devise a “more targeted and strategic approach to investment attraction”.

The discussion had some entertaining moments.

Here is a link to the meeting minutes and the video recording.

 

Redlands2030 – 9 July 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Comments

Amy Glade, Jul 12, 2017

1. SPORTING LANDS. When Karen Williams became Mayor of Redland City, I was informed the family purchased the Goleby property where Betty Goleby, ex-Councillor, held Weddings on the vast acreage estate. Is this land connected with the Williams’ existing property?
As regards ‘conflicts of interest’ The all powerful mayor doesn’t even need to leave the room, as required in past years, but stays in place voting for herself on whatever property or land she sets her sights on. Not a good look on Redland City Council leadership in my view.

2. COMMUNITY MARKETS. Not surprised the Capalaba market place at a Mt Cotton Rd school grounds is today a grubby ugly place. Cr Gleeson does not hold community meetings, so the entire Central creek area too, under his direction, is a disaster. We once had a lovely boardwalk from bridge on Old Cleveland Rd through to Crotona Rd creek bank….but when Central management asked to fix the fence never looked after by council after Leda built Tavern and Bottle shop, instead of replacement with metal rails, Cr Gleeson turned it into a no go zone for locals by installing a tall, non-see through timber fence already showing signs of wear and tear. Today it’s enter at own risk so locals stay away. Feel envious Victoria Pt has a beautiful Lakeside by the Cinemas, while we have nothing but an ugly, dirty concrete barrier on Creekside landscape at Capalaba Central.
In yesteryear, Cleveland markets on main street each Sunday was buzzing with activity with people coming by train from various areas to buy goods. Recall friend Beryl House, sitting by her spot selling ceramic works of art where people came by train from outlying areas to place orders. Those were the good times and at day’s end, the street was back to normal.

3. TOONDAH HARBOUR
With building thousands of apartments, I see further chaos as traffic can’t cope during rush hour traffic now with our suburban roads resulting in gridlock on Finucane Rd where we saw yet another death at intersection of Windemere and Finucane Rds Alex Hills this past week, so have Walker Corp along with Council & State govt heads arrived at a solution in providing employment for Redlanders, other than construction, to cut down on residents leaving the city for work, and Jackie Trad, fixing the suburban roads issue to lessen congestion on already congested roads ?

Toni, Jul 09, 2017

It would be ideal for the staff and Councillor to take a drive up to the Sunshine Coast and check out similar markets, one held in Ocean Street Maroochydore and the other in Marcoola. Both have many stalls for food and drinks. Thousands attend, Ocean Street is closed for the day of the event monthly and Maroocla hold the market every Friday night in a small park. The next day there is no sign of any event, streets clean and parking spaces all available and the park is back to its use for the community. Why would Council allow a company to take over parking space much needed for the library and have ugly containers sitting all week locked up. I have just passed the Capalaba Markets negotiated by Mayor Williams and Cr Gleeson, on a lovely open oval at Capalaba Collge . Now it looks terrible, all fenced off , ugly old metal sheds sit all week in the middle and sealed roads covering the green grass once a pleasant outlook from the road. OMG lets get some quality negotators in and look around at whats happening over Tingalpa Creek, these markets can go into places, be successful and be left that night, leaving no ugly visial impact.

Sam Delawarr, Jul 09, 2017

OMG!!! the council allowing a food/farmers market !!! every major suburban hub and/or township has at least one if not many ….what the hell are the negatives whinging about now …. basically it’s like watching the negative BS of Tony Abbott , trying to bust the council on every tiny application …bugger the community amenities , bugger the majority as long as your negative rhetoric on every situation brings the old council back and bugger the majority of Redland ratepayers …..Haven’t yáll got some positives to push !!!

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