Consult People About Ziems Park

Illawarra Mercury

Monday July 14, 2008

Wollongong City Council will now look at alternative options for Towradgi Park and consult with the community on any future plans for the important recreational area.

That decision was reported in The Advertiser on July 9.

Will Wollongong City Council also look at options and consult with the community on future plans for another important recreational area: Ziems Park within the Corrimal District Community Precinct.

Urbis in its option A for the Corrimal town centre revitalisation strategy included the potential for land south of Short St to be used for open space/community purposes, with frontage to the Princes Hwy.

That option is at loggerheads with what Stockland wants to do - extend its shopping centre south in air space over Short St and then to and including Ziems Butchery and associated sites for which it is reported to have completed purchase at the beginning of July.

Stockland also wants that part of Ziems Park between Corrimal Pool and its now extensive Princes Hwy landholdings for commercial purposes.

Wollongong City Council should step in now and call a moratorium on accepting any plans or development applications for the area south of Short St until the masterplanning for Corrimal is completed.

Otherwise, council will be setting the scene for another anti-restaurant/cafe-in-Towradgi-Park battle, this time to have proper future plans for Ziems Park and environs ready for public consideration and comment at the same time Stockland's expansion aspirations are presented in development application form.

Otherwise, it will be a case of the public having to comment when only one option for the land south of Short St and fronting the Princes Hwy has been presented by powerful commercial interests.

Corrimal Chamber of Commerce prepared and submitted a Green Mile concept as well as a Ziems Park extension to the Princes Hwy and enhancement concept as a contribution to the Corrimal masterplanning process.

These concepts have yet to be made public by council.

And any sceptic could be forgiven for wondering why the back-to-back sections of signs at the corner of Short St and the Princes Hwy, which have proclaimed the location of the Corrimal and District Community Precinct for donkey's years, have suddenly vanished.

Who was responsible for their removal? Is there an ulterior motive? Is someone trying to hide the fact that Corrimal has a community precinct which needs expansion and amplification south along the Princes Hwy? If the wind is to blame, then the next question has to be when will council repair and restore the missing sections of the signs to again properly identify the presence of the Corrimal District Community Precinct?

Ron Tindall, Corrimal.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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