<\/p>\n
The proposal has been deemed unviable due to civil infrastructure costs. (Supplied: Bundaberg Regional Council)<\/p>\n
On Friday, the council confirmed the site would not be used for affordable housing, citing costs and community sentiment.<\/p>\n
“Due to the quality of the land, the civil infrastructure costs would be too high, and the lot numbers would be overly restricted,” Mayor Helen Blackburn said.<\/p>\n
“Achieving the main outcome, which was to deliver the homes as affordably as possible, will not work on this site.”<\/p>\n
Cr Blackburn said while the land could be sold and used for housing by a private developer, the council had heard the community’s opposition “loud and clear”.<\/p>\n
“We will be looking at trying to integrate the entire parcel into the Baldwin Swamp Environmental Park,” she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Helen Blackburn says the council has listened to the community. (Supplied: Baldwin Swamp Protection Group)<\/p>\n
The community has been lobbying for the land’s inclusion into the environmental park since the council took ownership of the area in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
Baldwin Swamp Protection Group’s Maureen Schmitt said the decision was a “massive relief”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Baldwin Swamp Protection Group wants the land included in the environmental park. (Supplied: Baldwin Swamp Protection Group)<\/p>\n
“The community has been very much against this from the very beginning,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a win for the environment, and we hope a win for the environmental park, and a win for the community, for future generations.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kris Robinson and Helen Blackburn will keep looking for suitable land. (ABC Wide Bay: Nikki Sorbello)<\/p>\n
Cr Blackburn said the council would continue to work with Regional Housing Limited to find alternative options for affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Regional Housing Limited business development manager Kris Robinson said the group knew from the outset that developing the site would be a challenge.<\/p>\n
“We’re just focused on looking at any opportunity that we can to create additional affordable housing,” Mr Robinson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A controversial bid to turn 26 hectares of Bundaberg’s green space into an affordable housing estate has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,104637,104639,104638,104636,44,104641,104640,21331],"class_list":["post-157134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baldwin-swamp","tag-bundaberg-regional-council","tag-environmental-park","tag-gympie-estate","tag-news","tag-protection-group","tag-regional-housing-limited","tag-wide-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}