IT has been announced that the public-private-partnership put together between Walker Corp and Redland City Council to redevelop the Weinam Creek ferry terminal is finished.
Council will now take over the project although it remains unclear to what extent. It has already bought 4.5 hectares on the southern side of the creek for parking.
Parking was always the bugbear in the PPP deal. The more public car parks and other infrastructure Walker had to supply, the less economic the project became.
Another harsh commercial reality of the site is that no developer could expect to get the same return selling apartments at Weinam as they could at, say, Toondah Harbour or Cleveland.
Southern Moreton Bay Island residents will likely be disappointed that the deal with Walker has washed up for it inevitably means more delays in their transport hub refurbishment.
It’s annoying but ratepayers as a whole should not be too disappointed. If the deal did not work out in the best interests of the public, so be it.
An issue that demands close scrutiny will be how council approaches the redevelopment.
Council may almost become a developer itself to some degree because the land it has bought is a substantial block and, when combined with other public lands, would suggest that there will be room for some residential component to help pay for public infrastructure.
Here council must seek the best planning advice and maybe Walker Corp may wish to play a role given it must already have sunk a considerable amount into trying to work out a plan for the entire site.
Hard nosed decisions must be taken about what standard of project might be best and what style of development will be appropriate for the foreshore area in decades to come.
The economics of the project will be a primary consideration but we do not need to create a seaside slum for the sake of a few dollars. There has already been enough poor development decisions on the nearby islands.
As we have said before, Weinam’s primary interests are foreshore access, public parking as opposed to unit parking and public transport access all delivered in some sort of agreeable aesthetic manner.
This is the big picture view that our councillors must now take.
