Rosalie Woodruff MP | Greens Member for Franklin
A packed public meeting opposed to the Kangaroo Bay foreshore development moved to censure Clarence City Council for failing to uphold the community consultation guidelines, and called on them to rescind the development approval.
More than 170 residents packed the meeting, facilitated by the Greens on behalf of community group, Voice of Kangaroo Bay.
Residents expressed outrage at Council's betrayal of the community, the secret deals over several years between the State Liberal Government, TasTafe and the developer, Shandong Chambroad, and changes to the Kangaroo Bay Development Plan the community only heard about in the week before Christmas.
A community-endorsed Development Plan was passed by the Tasmanian Planning Commission in 2011, which allowed a maximum three-storey building height, large public open spaces, and connection with the water. The approved development directly contravenes that, and has buildings more than five stories high, with public space effectively gone.
Premier, and local MP, Will Hodgman did not attend the meeting to defend his government’s gift of $2.5 million of Crown Land for the development, despite being invited by concerned community members.
Clarence City Council Mayor, Doug Chipman, told the meeting the Council's decision to advertise on 17 December was "out of its hands", but didn’t comment about the approval disregarding the Kangaroo Bay Development Plan, and failing to uphold its Community Participation Policy.
Eastern Shore residents present at the meeting moved a motion demanding Clarence Council and State Government come clean with the community about the deals they're striking on six other Kangaroo Bay developments.
The same company, Shandong Chambroad, has been described as "the preferred developer" but, again, there's been no consultation with the community about the sale of public land, or the scale of these developments.
The Hodgman Government has sold Tasmanians a lemon with their anti-community Tasmanian Planning Scheme legislation, that the Kangaroo Bay development falls under. The Greens stand with Kangaroo Bay residents - and all Tasmanians - sick of deals being done in secret to trade away public land, and to approve developments without community consultation.