General News
9 June, 2026
Cr fails to defer Atherton land move
A TABLELANDS councillor has attempted to defer a proposal to carve up a large parcel of public land in Atherton until the community is notified and has been consulted.
Cr Kevin Cardew ultimately failed in his bid to defer the move to start assessing the development application to subdivide the land at 42 Mabel Street at the council’s latest meeting, describing the move as “premature”.
The motion by Tablelands Acting Mayor Dave Bilney is part of the council’s “divestment” program and involves subdividing the large block that once housed the Atherton State School.
The land would be divided into two lots so a 15,000 sq metre parcel could be sold off for a commercial development, while the 10,000 sq m parcel would be retained by council for a new civic building that would house the council’s administration centre.
This would allow the land on which the existing chambers sit to be also sold off.
Cr Bilney moved that the application be assessed by council’s planning officers before being brought back to council for a final decision and did his best to reassure councillors it was the right move.
He said the decision to subdivide the lot was resolved by the former council for a specific purpose, however, that did not proceed for various reasons.
“This, admittedly, was a smaller parcel, however, the overall intent was no different,” he said.
“It proposes creating two community lots – one to remain in council control, and Lot 2 would be sold to a potential commercial investment by a developer.
“This will provide certainty to those interested parties which is what the development application seeks to do.
“It’s a simple process of approving one lot into two lots - the DA is not approving any development at this point. Council needs to establish two clear lots to be able to then go to the market.
“There is substantial capital investment opportunity for the Tablelands and we should demonstrate that council is open for business.”
But Cr Maree Baade was clear she was concerned that the public would not be able to have a say, given the application would not be “impact assessable”, which dictates that the public must be notified of the development and able to make submissions.
Chief executive officer Nikola Stepanov confirmed that the community would not be able to have a say before the council made a final decision.
She had been in discussions with a potential developer who was interested in buying the 15,000sq m parcel but would not divulge what the development might be.
Cr Cardew took exception to the motion being put before the council, saying it was premature, given the community was unaware of the proposal.
He said he had not seen the motion moved by Cr Bilney before the meeting, to which Cr Bilney replied he had been up at 1.30am the day of the meeting writing the proposal.
“I am not happy with this here for a number of reasons - one, the public knows nothing about this. We have done no public consultation at all,” Cr Cardew said.
“If we go down this line and subdivide this major lot here – that’s the jewel in our crown in community assets – we are doing that prematurely because we don’t know what the overall design concept for this precinct is – we haven’t been shown anything, we haven’t properly discussed what we’d like to see.
“The information we received earlier in the piece was that we were going to (establish) a civic centre, incorporating the new shire chambers, perhaps a conference centre, perhaps a theatre, and some commercial or retail component.
He said the vision was for any new civic building to face Mabel Street but the arbitrary line drawn to subdivide the lot would mean any new civic centre would be behind the Disaster Coordination Centre and the Fire Brigade.
“That doesn’t showcase our shire or our offices – we would just be tucked in behind these other buildings,” Cr Cardew said.
“We still don’t know what that commercial component is and we haven’t been privy to that, the negotiations that the CEO has started.
“It could be a Coles, a Bunnings, it could be anything, which, in my mind, is not suited to that precinct. But we don’t know.”
Cr Con Spanos agreed that any civic building should face Mabel Street and that the number one priority was to consult with the community before making a decision on how the land should be subdivided.
Ms Stepanov said that given the cost-of-living pressures on ratepayers, “we are looking at a modern, but very basic civic building” of around 3000sqm.
“The community would not think it be appropriate for staff and councillors to be housed in something akin to a palace,” she said.
The council voted 4-3 to move forward with the development application to be assessed, with Cr Bilney using his casting vote to get the matter over the line. Crs Baade, Cardew and Spanos voted against the motion.
