Storage facilities or residential

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Following the recommendation by the Southern Downs Planning Services Coordinator to refuse the storage facility, Councillor Andrew Gale questioned why this decision was made.

“That block’s been vacant for many years … I would have thought if it was going to get residential housing on it, something might have happened in the meantime,” Cr Gale said.

Given the contaminated land listing, Councillor Gale stated that he felt it was a good way to use the area, and that there was a need in the community for self-storage facilities.

“The word on the street, and anecdotal evidence around the place …[shows] there is a drastic shortage of storage units available in this area. I’ve been told that people are renting private garages off people to use as storage.”

The Senior Officer for the SDRC Planning Services said the application by the developer needs to argue that based on client-occupancy rates of existing storage facilities in the region, this type of development is needed.

“This is an opportunity for us to indicate where we want the overall planning scheme to head moving forward, and I believe it should be residential and any opportunity we get to move people, with industrial businesses and even mixed use where possible, add industrial zones, future zones that haven’t even been decided yet,” Cr Gliori said.

“You also need to demonstrate that by taking away residential land, that you’re not going to compromise our goal of obviously increasing growth, allowing for residential growth within our medium residential zone,” the Senior Officer said.

Councillor Jo McNally said she was torn on which way to vote regarding this proposal.

“We definitely have a shortage of storage sheds … but there is also no accommodation for people,” she said. “I can see why it’s been refused in that area because we need accommodation. Council was the owner of this land, we did sell it, and with hindsight, we probably should have said it could never be sold unless it was going to be used for residential. I can understand the reasons for refus- ing it, but I also wonder if perhaps some of those reasons are not reasonable enough to refuse it.

“We’re talking about storage sheds in a residential area … local governments across Australia, across Queensland are screaming out for accommodation for people … this is something that could have a huge impact for the residents of our town and our region,” Cr McNally continued. “I hope the Department of Housing are watching this [Council meeting livestream], and actually make an offer on this land and build some units there themselves, but that’s a different story. I believe it would be highly hypocritical to say that storage needs come above human needs and we have no accommodation … this is a per- fect place.”

This opinion was not shared across the table.

Councillor Cynthia McDonald stressed that the vacant lot is located near a mechanics, a pub, a petrol station, a recycling shop, a railway line and a stock produce shop, highlighting zoning to be the issue in this argument.

“Looking at the planning scheme … medium density rules … allows for animal husbandry and warehousing … now storage sheds, how far off warehousing are they?” Cr McDonald said.

An original application in 2017 called for 25 double-storey townhouses to be built on the block, however, that application lapsed as the applicant failed to respond to the council’s information request.

“25 double-storey townhouses might have more of an impact than a storage facility on the amenity of the area,” Cr McDonald said. “Given the proximity of those other businesses being located literally across the road, I do have some concerns that we’re not showing any latitude at all as the Council are going hard down the line of refusing this. My feelings are that we have a planning scheme that’s obviously coming in … it appears to me to be more of a mixed-use area,” Cr McDonald said.

Councillor Stephen Tancred voiced his disapproval of the report submitted to Council, saying storage facilities are very low impact.

“There’s a storage facility on the industrial estate near my business, I drive past it all the time … I’d be lucky to see one car a week go in there,” Cr Tancred said. “People just take their goods there, lock the door and come back in two, three or four months’ time … it’s not like it’s people ducking in and out daily … they’re very low impact, very low traffic.”

Councillor Marco Gliori sided with Councillor McNally and the majority of the room regarding the issue stating that the businesses and industrial parts of the area probably wouldn’t be approved now, and stressing his desire to plan for the future.

Local author Deborah Wheeler received word on Sunday, February 12 that her documentary, “Second

Carpenter” had won the Mykonos International Film Festivals ‘Best Short Documentary’. She said she could “never have dreamed there would be such ongoing acclaim” resulting from her book, ‘Silk Clouds & Olive Trees: Stories from the Battle of Crete.’ “It is so important to capture the stories of our Veterans, to hear them tell their stories in their own words before this important history is lost,” the author said. Read Friday’s Daily Journal for the full story.

“That’s what we’re here for, that helicopter view, that overview vision of where we’re going forward, we’re in the process of looking at planning for the future,” Cr Gliori said. “There are plenty of other areas where these could exist, and it really hit a nail on the head when Cr McNally said what is the priority here? Housing or storage sheds? It’s housing for me … we have lots of businesses that have been there for a long time. I understand they exist, but during this term we’ve had councillors speak out about, for example, the service station on the corner of Guy and Wood Street.