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City approves developer's plans for Maleny Palms |
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Written by Administrator
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Thursday, 13 July 2006 |
PLANS to redevelop the Maleny Palms Caravan Park have just been approved by Caloundra City Council. This paves the way for developer Kenmount Property Pty Ltd to level the park and build a residential resort just off Beech Street.
Kenmount's plans for the site amount to 93 new homes, a bowling green, tennis court, lap pool, community recreation room and on-site maintenance facility, all designed to complement the neighbouring Hill Top Village. Overall, the new site, which will be called the Opal Garden Residential Resort, will provide 138 residential units.
Council approved the application on July 6. But there are 50 conditions which Kenmount must guarantee to meet before Council lets any heavy machinery on site. This $25 million development also has a human cost, namely the relocation of most of the residents of the Maleny Palms site.
Of the 20 residents on site when the developer first moved in, 14 have moved on and six still remain on site. Despite the upheaval of moving these people, many of whom were elderly or infirm, most are reportedly satisfied with the outcome.
Still, Council's approval contains a number of important messages to Kenmount. Division One councillor Dick Newman felt the approval process had been difficult and demanding on the affected residents. But he said council had done everything possible to protect the interests of those residents who will be staying on in the new development. The councillor alludes to the six residents mentioned above, who will remain on site. Their homes will be moved and amalgamated with the new ones that will be built later this year.
"Before signing off on this approval, Council staff assured me that every one of those homes can be retained in the new development," Cr Newman said. "The developer and council staff were aware that I would not agree to anything else and I thank both parties for their co-operation."
While developers always seem to antagonise smaller communities, especially one with Maleny's reputation, in a way perhaps it's just as well a family business like Kenmount bought this land. At least they don't have shareholders to answer to.
Had a big corporation bought the land, residents could have expected much less compensation. According to the Town Plan, the land was available for development anyway. And given the development restrictions set in 2005's South-East Queensland Regional Plan, the caravan park was unlikely to remain untouched. Recently TRN was made aware of a developer with a similar project which paid just $47,000 to compensate people who were losing their homes.
Mr Puljich said he had paid out about $500,000 for compensation and rehousing. "I hope the community is happy now it's all settled if it wasn't me it would be somebody else and that could have been a corporate developer," Mr Puljich said. "We have paid out compensation where the law said we need not."
"Maleny should look forward to this new, boutique development, which will be in keeping with its character."
Meanwhile, Cr Newman, who has publicly admitted he sympathises with the park residents, conceded that Mr
Puljich and Kenmount had acted most appropriately in their dealings with council. "It's not going to be a terribly popular thing to say but everything I have asked Peter to do, he has done he has given council exactly what it requested and Peter has been accessible and has agreed to what we asked," he said.
"My concerns are always with the community and now both the Hilltop Village and Maleny Palms people just want this finished." Community action group Maleny Voice (MV), which took up the plight of those Maleny Palms residents at first unwilling to move on, were dissatisfied with the outcome.
"We won't take this further as a group but we are still unhappy that two or three people who are remaining on site are not happy with their new plots," MV spokesperson Joe Colreavy said.
When completed around Christmas time, the developer said the project would bring new life and jobs for the community.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 02 September 2006 )
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