Council would have total control of all budget decisions on the controversial Birkdale Community Precinct Development, according to a high-ranking official.
Redland City Council’s elected members and staff have separately acknowledged that confusion and rumours exist around the project due to a void in accurate information being available and understood.
At a Council meeting last week, Redland City Council’s Advocacy, Major Projects and Economic Development Team [AMPED] general manager Chris Isles confirmed that Council controls absolute budget decisions on the project.
He corrected a comment made by Cr Paul Bishop, who suggested decisions on the precinct were solely delegated to the Chief Executive Officer.
“Council absolutely controls future decisions as they relate to how the precinct will be developed,” Mr Isles said.
However, he said council could reserve the right to delegate to the CEO as it had done on previous occasions, including the 2021 decision around the 2032 Olympic Games.
Mr Isles said at least five independent groups of people had all reached the same conclusion that the Birkdale project was a sound financial proposition.
“When Council adopted the masterplan, we said the project can and will be profit-generating, and that statement supports comments around the table that it will then be able to be reinvested into the Parklands to support operating costs for the rest of the precinct,” he said.
Mr Isles also confirmed the Redland City Council was under no obligation to fund the Olympic venue, while acknowledging the Olympic Whitewater Venue would also provide infrastructure to the remainder of the parklands.
“If you don’t have the Olympic venue, there is a hole in our parkland which will cost us capital money to fill at the moment,” Mr Isles said.
“We’re essentially getting a venue delivered for us at no cost to the Council.”
The Birkdale Community Precinct is a 62-hectare space of which 32 hectares would be allocated for the parklands to make use of areas currently void of vegetation and trees, Mr Isles said.
He said the whitewater centre venue would make up 6 per cent of the total land, and 18 per cent of the parkland keyhole proposed for development.
Mr Isles said he had read and seen community observations and concerns about potential impacts on the area’s water table.
“As officers, both Council and State Government have had various engineering consultants involved and extensive work has been done throughout the site with a heavy focus on where the whitewater venue will be located,” he said.
“A vast majority of those instances where we’ve done the work, we didn’t find groundwater. We certainly hit groundwater in a few locations but in every location where groundwater was hit, our maximum depth of a proposed excavation is at least two metres above the water table.
“We are very confident that the venue can be constructed without having an impact on the water table.”
