Once a park, then a square, now a mall.
Five years after a few hundred pavers quashed King George Square's standing as a CBD park, Brisbane City Council is set to make it official.
But the open space framing City Hall, one of Brisbane's grandest historic buildings, will not be classified as a square but as a mall.
It has council opposition leader Milton Dick raising concerns about the potential for increased commercialisation of the busy city open space.
The council recently lodged an application for a newsagency kiosk to be installed on the upper deck level of the square.
"King George Square used to be the people's place, where office workers could sit and have lunch but these days it's a commercial concrete jungle," he said.
"It's bad enough King George Square is the hottest place in Brisbane, does it really need a newsagency too when there are already four places nearby to buy a paper?
"I'm calling on council to scrap this plan and to rule out the further commercialisation of King George Square."
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced the proposed reclassification of King George Square at the final council meeting of the last sitting period.
In a statement, finance chairman Julian Simmonds said the change would mean the square would be managed in the same way as Queen Street Mall and Redacliff Place.
However a council spokeswoman could not say exactly what that would mean for users.
"Under the proposed new local law King George Square would be considered both a park and a mall space to reflect how it is currently used and managed. There will be no significant operational changes," she said.
The reclassification of the square falls under the same proposed consolidation of local laws in which the council will controversially ask groups of more than 50 to seek permits to gather in city parks.
The council spokeswoman said no further commercial kiosks were planned for King George Square at this stage.
Cr Simmonds said the newsagency kiosk was another way of activating the public space.
"There has been significant interest in commercial spaces in King George Square with a café and coffee kiosk already well established," he said.
"King George Square is one of the CBD's popular and highly trafficked spaces, designed to be a public square with the capability of hosting both public and private events, with the current commercial leases."
But Cr Dick said should it be approved, it would encroach upon publicly available space in the square.
"This is one of the few places in King George Square where people can sit in the shade and the administration wants to rip out the seating to open a shop," he said.
