Bid for Mac Pt rethink
New group sees waterfront scope and traffic fix in blue-chip site
A GROUP of eminent former government and public policy specialists is urging the State Government to slow down the Macquarie Point development.
The group — Bob Annells, Damian Bugg QC, Don Challen, Dan Norton, Tony Pedder, Greg Ray and Mike Vertigan — says key to the site’s success is finding a commercially viable development the city really needs and not succumbing to pressure from those who want immediate development.
It is also calling on the State Government to extend the Macquarie Point precinct to include harbourside shoreline.
A development application for office and commercial space at Macquarie Point is being prepared.
SOME of the state’s biggest public sector names are voicing concerns over the direction the Macquarie Point development is taking.
The Evers Network — named after former bureaucrat and politician Nick Evers, who died in 2013 — is a group of eminent former government and public policy special- ists that includes Bob Annells, Damian Bugg QC, Don Challen, Dan Norton, Tony Pedder, Greg Ray and Mike Vertigan.
In the Mercury today, the group says the key to Macquarie Point’s success lies in finding a commercially viable development the city really needs and not succumbing to pressures from those who want immediate development.
It is calling on the State Government to expand and extend the Macquarie Point precinct to include harbourside shoreline.
The group wants the site to cover the waterfront from Macquarie Wharf 6, north along the foreshore bordering the Cenotaph taking in the Hobart Regatta grounds, the shipyard and the former HMAS Huon naval base.
“This would turn the cur- rently restricted redevelopment area into a stretch of premium waterfront real estate with improved potential to attract prestige development,” the network said.
“Potentially, it could also help ease Hobart’s traffic problems by delivering commuters by both ferry and light rail onto the doorstep of the city.”
Macquarie Point Development Corporation chief Mary Massina said in February a formal partnership with Aboriginal groups would be established to guide the development of a Truth and Reconciliation Art Park there.
The corporation has spent $15 million of a $45 million Federal Government allocation on remediating the blue-chip 9.3 hectare site on the Hobart CBD threshold.
A City Deal being negotiat- ed with the Federal Government is tipped to include cash for a $40 million Antarctic and science base on the site.
Hobart Lord Mayor Ron Christie has suggested turning part of the site into an interim recreational vehicle park.
A development application for office and commercial space at Macquarie Point is being prepared.