Decision imminent for Airlie main street

 Airlie main street submissions to the office of local MP Jan Jarratt have now closed, with the tourism minister expected to make an announcement by the end of the week.

 At the time of going to press on Tuesday afternoon Ms Jarratt was in the process of reviewing more than 100 formal submissions. While the minister had yet to make a decision she also ruled out an extension, requested by the Whitsunday Ratepayers Association, until November 4.

 “The original design concept has been out for discussion for more than a year and I have previously made it clear that October 31 would be the deadline for submissions. I have spoken with the Whitsunday Ratepayers Association committee’s president and committed to accepting their submission, provided it is received by tomorrow,” Ms Jarratt said.

 “I believe our town needs an expedient resolution on this matter and I intend to deliver that,” she said.

 Save Our Foreshore president Suzette Pelt said over 1,063 local people had signed objection letters (to the idea of a land swap and proposal for a four-storey hotel) to date.

 “The public oppose this so-called land swap for good reason and have come out and made their wishes known. The Minister must consider the Land Act’s guiding principles which are founded on the duty of the State Government to “protect the public interest” in the use of State Land on behalf of all Queenslanders. There is clearly no overwhelming community support for the proposal for any public land swap,” Ms Pelt said.

 “Last week’s successful four-day Reef Festival is just one example of how this site benefits the whole town and its organisers are to be congratulated.  There is nowhere else like it,” she said.

Community divided over upgrade to Airlie main street

 Straight versus curved, land swap versus resumption, four-storey building versus uninterrupted park: these are the issues dividing the community, with the future of the Airlie main street upgrade still up to local residents to decide.

 Just two weeks ago Whitsunday Regional Council recalled its main street survey referring the matter to local MP Jan Jarratt and minister for natural resources Rachel Nolan, but Ms Nolan says a formal application to the state government for the proposed land swap that would allow Des Davey’s building to be turned on it’s side has not yet been lodged. 

 “I will consider such a proposal when and if this happens,” she said.

 Mayor Mike Brunker said due to the costs and bureaucratic processes involved council would not make the submission unless it was sure of community support.

 “There’s no point in putting in an application if the community isn’t supportive, so we’re trying to gauge opinions first,” Cr Brunker said.

 “At the end of October we’re going to have to get our heads together and see whether we proceed or not,” he said.

 “If we’re not going to go ahead with it (the current design) we need to get new designs for a straight road, which will cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars.”

 Meanwhile both the Airlie Action Group (AAG) and Save Our Foreshore (SOF) are continuing to rally support, with SOF taking their pink caravan to the Airlie Beach markets championing the protection of public land and AAG holding a stakeholders question and answer meeting at the Reef Gateway Hotel earlier this week.

 Member for Whitsunday Jan Jarratt said she was engaging in extensive consultations with all groups concerned.

 “Just last week the acting premier Andrew Fraser and I met with Save Our Foreshore and the Airlie Action Group to hear both points of view,” Ms Jarratt said.

 “In the interests of expediting this process for the benefit of our entire community, my office will continue to accept submissions until Monday October 31 and I will make an announcement on the Main Street upgrade shortly thereafter,” she said.

Debate heats up over Airlie's main street

 Whitsunday Regional Council’s recent move to gauge public opinion on the Airlie main street upgrade (via an online opinion poll) has sparked more intense comment in the ongoing curved-versus-straight-street debate.

 Out-of-town property investor Gary Dunn says any opinion poll should take into account the views of non-resident ratepayers, without whom, in his judgement, the area would be “an economic disaster”.

 Mr Dunn recently wrote to the offices of local MP Jan Jarratt and WRC expressing his concerns and accusing community group Save Our Foreshore (SOF) of “once again impeding the economic development of Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays by opposing the main street upgrade unless it is done on their terms”.

 “If SOF think turning the area totally into a park with a ‘soundshell’ and waterslide is going to draw tourists to the area they are sadly uneducated as to what modern day tourists demand.

 “The failure to allow the redevelopment of the car park with the so called Outrigger Hotel (largely as a result of the opposition by SOF) back in 2008, now has consequences that can be seen by empty shops and an untouched main street,” Mr Dunn said.

 Meanwhile SOF continues to defend its stance on the protection of public land, saying the area in question is simply “not the mayor’s to give away”.

 “The curve in the road is a pretty design feature which is not needed, is too expensive for the limited budget, is not wanted by many and will benefit one flood-prone property owner,” said SOF president Suzette Pelt.

 “Let’s be realistic and practical about this and live within our means. Leaving the road straight with tree plantings and landscaping will deliver the results (and more likely within budget). Importantly, it will deliver without wrecking Airlie’s unique foreshore asset. The Main Street upgrade was never intended to be dependent on taking public foreshore land,” she said.

 Members of the public are being encouraged to have their say by completing the WRC online survey at www.whitsundayrc.qld.gov.au with a cut-off date of Wednesday October 19.

Solution sought for Airlie Beach main street

After many months of drawings, discussions and now a debate on the gun-barrel vista versus curved road design - that also centres around drainage, loss of public land and the building of a four-storey hotel - tenders have finally gone out for the upgrade of the Airlie main street.

 Project Director Gary Hunt confirmed yesterday that tenders had been called in spite of the latest hiccup, which ‘Save Our Foreshore’, landowner Des Davey, the design team and Whitsunday Regional Council, will be meeting today to discuss.

 “There’s quite deliberately a degree of flexibility in the way that the tender documents have gone out allowing for fine-tuning of the design during the construction process,” Mr Hunt said.

 “The ideal outcome is to try to come up with a solution that satisfies the majority of people with the understanding that you can’t please everyone all of the time,” he said.

 The current argument against a pronounced curve in the road comes from the proposed relocation of Mr Des Davey’s current supermarket block beside the Airlie Creek, pushing it towards the sea and onto what is effectively crown land. Mr Davey accepts there is no future for his block (in its current state) and therefore plans to redevelop, building a four-storey hotel.

 “The kink (in the road) means I’ve got to go. Their (the design team’s) concept was to turn the block on its side but that doesn’t lend itself to a retail building – the end result was I would have to build a people-friendly restaurant/hotel,” Mr Davey said.

 Save our Foreshore President Suzette Pelt says it is her understanding that “if just one person gets permission to build past the current building line, a precedent would be set”.

 “There is a risk we would lose our foreshore. Public land is not negotiable. Once you lose it it’s gone forever” Ms Pelt said.

 Several compromises have so far been suggested, one of which is for council to simply buy Mr Davey out, however Mayor Mike Brunker says this is not financially viable with no budget for any form of monetary compensation.

 “The easiest thing for council to do would be to buy him (Des Davey) out, but we haven’t got the money. The people of Airlie Beach would be paying for it. People are already complaining about paying too high rates, yet we have other people saying, “buy him out – just borrow more”. It’s not like picking money off a money tree. We just can’t do that. Basically the more we can work in with Des, the less it’ll cost us,” Cr Brunker said.

 “By him turning his building on its side he gets a like for like amount of land. To encourage/compensate him for dozing over his building and losing rent for so many years we’re giving him an opportunity to build a hotel on a location that suits him. This allows us to put the bend in the road, which is also to try and fix the flooding,” he said.

 “To put this into perspective we’ve had 20 years of inaction and 40 reports done on the main street. Now after just 40 weeks of being in the job we’re calling tenders. Today we’re drawing a line in the sand and saying ‘this is a part of our bright prosperous future’,” Mayor Brunker said.

 Mr Hunt said it was important now to work “closely with Save Our Foreshore, the Whitsunday Ratepayers Association, Des Davey and other stakeholders to explore other options that may present themselves.”

 “There’s no doubt there is a willingness from all sides to find a solution,” he said.