Greens candidate for South Brisbane, Jonathon Sri has expressed serious concerns about the drafting process of the new masterplan.
“Inviting consultation after the draft has been finalised is patronising and tokenistic,” he said. “It goes without saying that local residents and small businesses should have been consulted before it was released.”
He said that the plan contains some positive elements, “it’s nice that some of the existing public spaces will be made more accessible – but at the end of the day, the new plan seems to be a bit of a missed opportunity.
“We’ll be cramming thousands of people into an area that may not have sufficient infrastructure to accommodate them.”
He also expressed concern about the lack of new schools and public health services to cater for the 11 000 new residents, and commented that “the new parks that the government’s been banging on about are quite small.”
He said, “The best aspects of the project, like the new public ampitheatre, are described as aspirational ideas that require further investigation, whereas the worst aspects, like the fact that much of the ‘open space’ appears to be private gardens, are already locked in.
“The proposed redesign of key arterial streets also fails to provide safe cycling routes through the peninsula. Narrow bike lanes will be wedged between car lanes and streetside parking, despite local and international research telling us that this is unsafe and suboptimal.
“The redevelopment of Kurilpa Peninsula represents a great opportunity for Brissie, but if done poorly, it’ll simply replicate the mistakes of the past.”
Mr Sri said that these issues reflect a “socially unsustainable approach to development throughout inner-city Brisbane.”
“In trying to commodify and profit from urban culture, developers may well be killing it off altogether.”