Here's the text of our first email update to residents concerned about the development application for 94 to 108 Lambert St..
Dear residents,
Thanks for showing an interest in the campaign against unsustainable over-development around Kangaroo Point. Feel free to forward this email on to any of your friends and neighbours who might be interested, and tell them they can sign up for local updates via this link.
On Friday morning, I attended a residents meeting to provide an update on the Development Application ('DA') for 94 to 108 Lambert St, which involves three very bulky highrise towers, and fails to complete the adjoining section of riverwalk between Mowbray Park and Dockside.
The buildings are too close together and too close to the property boundaries, creating negative impacts in terms of overshadowing, airflow, and view corridors. And of course the traffic impacts and strain on local infrastructure are also likely to be significant. There’s not enough green space or community facilities on-site, and apartments seem cramped and poorly designed.
In response to submissions from my office and local residents, Brisbane City Council has now sent an information request to the developers raising concerns about a range of issues. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can view the information request via this link. The developer now has a maximum of three months to respond to BCC’s concerns.
It’s particularly important that if some kind of highrise development is approved on this site, the developer is required to complete their section of the riverwalk at the same time. It would be far more costly, difficult and disruptive to get construction equipment down to the riverbank to build the riverside footpath after towers are built and residents have moved in.
It’s crucial to understand that the council has broad discretion as to whether to approve this project, and what changes it can request of the developer. If the mayor really wanted to stop it going ahead altogether, he does have various mechanisms available to do so. He could even, for example, acquire part of the site to create a new public park, which is sorely needed in Kangaroo Point considering the rapid population growth.
Time and again around Brisbane, I’ve seen the LNP-dominated city council approve developments that don’t comply with the Acceptable Outcomes in the City Plan. Unfortunately, simply pointing out to council that developers aren’t following the rules is not enough. At the end of the day, the LNP are primarily concerned about power – and that means votes.
If you want to advocate for council to:
- reject the current development application at 108 Lambert St
- acquire land for more public green space in the area, and
- complete the riverwalk as soon as possible,
the first action you can take right now is to contact the mayor and tell him that if he wants your vote, he needs to reject this DA before the March 2020 council election.
The second action you should take is to forward this message on to as many friends as possible, and ask them to contact the mayor’s office with similar comments.
- Call the mayor’s office on 3403 4400 or email [email protected]
- Give a full name and address
- Tell the mayor’s staff that you will be advising all your friends and family members not to vote for the LNP unless he rejects this development application before the March 2020 council election
- Ask your neighbours to do the same.
I'm optimistic that if we act collectively as a community we can apply enough pressure to get a significantly better design outcome on this site, and hopefully even build support for more public green space and investment in local infrastructure within the surrounding neighbourhood.
I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop if I hear any updates from council.
Warm regards,
Jonno