Proposed expansion of St Lucia Public Golf Course as a Function Centre
Phone 07 3371 9355 or Email
7 September 2003
Anyone near or with friends near the St Lucia Golf Course should have a look at the proposed expansion of the "clubhouse" which is rapidly becoming a major convention, function and entertainment centre with less and less control on how it actually operates and any nuisances it causes.
It seems it is proposed to nearly double the size of the "useful" areas ... although the plans are almost without detail ... so it is hard to tell what is proposed...!
There is proposed to be 60 employees ...!
There is only proposed to be 111 car spaces despite the 60 employees ...
Operating hours proposed are 8am-1am ... 7 days a week ...!
There is NO public transport access ... so it is totally based on cars and taxis ... or people walking home through local streets after a night's drinking ...!
Some of the existing carparks are to be built on ... so the additional carparking spreads down into the grassed areas along Carawa Street and towards Indooroopilly Road ... so more paving and less grass... and much of it is too steep so will probably involve extensive retaining walls ... a far cry from the current park setting...!
Council advises that there has never been an ecological (ie fauna and flora) study of the golf course so the environmental and ecological impacts cannot be assessed against a baseline study ... so the loss of trees, the increased water volumes on Sandy Creek simply get approved ... by Council...!
Also given the cultural/historic significance of the site and the setting, this development should "trigger" a cultural/historical assessment given the significance of the change of use!
Despite Council's professed interest in both the cultural/historical and the environmental/ecological (ie River Festival for example ...!), it is interesting that at the actual practice level, BCC sets an extremely poor example ... as here with this application ..!
The golf course has been ILLEGALLY allowing car parking on the grassed areas and with much bigger areas for MORE PEOPLE, there will be many more cars ... so there will be MORE illegal parking on the grass ...
There should be bollard type barriers to PREVENT excess carparking using the grassed areas ...
The "park" areas along Indooroopilly Road remain undesignated so could become car parking ... at the same time losing even more "park" at the same time as the golf course is proposed to be fenced ...!
Indooroopilly Golf Course is hardly viable as a function centre ... both have NO public transport ... yet Council seems inclined to allow this major expansion on what is effectively Council (ie "our" land) ...
Council is judge and jury ... it has a big financial interest so it is hardly likely to worry about the hooning or other behaviour of people driving or walking through our streets at 1-2am ...!
If you want more info, have a look at the proposals at Cr Jane Prentice's Ward Office at Shoppingtown (next to the library) ASAP ...
If you have any concerns eg about traffic, behaviour, noise, parking, loss of park etc, get a submission in to Council with a copy to Jane .... ASAP ... I think submission date is 17 September ...!
Michael Yeates