Wynnum Central development faces further delays – Peter Cumming

WynnumCentral invited Councillor Peter Cumming to comment on current developments in Wynnum Central. Here’s what he had to say…

Finally the LNP administration at City Hall have made some decisions on the old Wynnum Central School site which they purchased from the State Government over 18 months ago.

However the major decision is to conceal council’s plans for redevelopment of the commercial part of the site. The plans will be released on 31st January 2016, just two months before the next council election.

Wynnum Central is crying out for redevelopment . It needs the plans to be released NOW and debated in the local community before they are finalised. Then the plans need to be promoted to the development community. What we do NOT need is to have the plans concealed for two years and released when it is politically convenient for the LNP administration.

I have said previously I support council advertising for a cinema operator on the site and council being prepared to offer a minimal rent for a period, perhaps five years, to allow the operator to get established. For those many thousands of Wynnum Manly residents who would like to see a cinema operating in the area this is one of the last chances so I urge you to get behind my proposal.

Apart from a cinema the school land is in the middle of the eight storey area under the 2009 Wynnum Manly Neighbourhood Plan. Therefore I would be happy to see an eight storey apartment building or motel on the site.
Perhaps there would be space for two eight storey buildings. The more people we have living near Wynnum Central the more chance we have of it being revitalised. Doing nothing is not an option.

Prior to the 2012 council election the current Lord Mayor promised a new library for Wynnum Manly. I support him honouring his promise. The area of the school site on the Charlotte Street side where the dreadful old wooden buildings are is the obvious place for the new library.

The only plans that have been revealed by the LNP administration are that Council is to subdivide the school site into five blocks. There will be two 6000 square metre blocks, one for commercial use and one for community use. This second block will include the beautiful old brick building and the useless old wooden buildings. There will be two blocks of parkland which will which will stretch from Florence Street to Charlotte Street and there will be one volumetric underground subdivision which is necessary to facilitate an underground car park.

I call upon the LNP administration to release their ideas for the commercial use of the site immediately. They need to conduct public consultation on the plans before they are finalised. They need to promote the plans to the development community. Over to you Lord Mayor Quirk.