Council to rule on land use row

A DECISION is finally due on one of the city’s most controversial subdivision proposals after months of stop-start setbacks.

The plan to subdivide a popular slice of wooded parkland on Reed Rd at Trinity Park had been due to go to Cairns Regional Council for a vote in January.

Its would-be developer, Marlin Coast Land Company, pulled the item in order to “further review submissions” from more than 100 people objecting to the project.

It has now deemed no further action is required and the proposal will go before the council for a decision today.

Planning officers have recommended the project for preliminary approval – a prospect Trinity Park resident Bob Holliday has urged the new council to contradict.

He said he felt “hoodwinked” after buying his property under the impression the 7326 sqm triangular block of land would be maintained as an entry statement to the Smithfield Village housing estate.

He also argued it would create dramatic traffic problems if allowed to go ahead.

“There are going to be a lot of disappointed people if the councillors vote the other way,” he said.

“And there is going to be a hell of a mess with the new road opening and discharging traffic right on that corner. To see that corner already with kids getting picked up in the afternoon, it’s unreal.”

Students at the neighbouring Holy Cross School launched their own protests against the residential subdivision late last year, putting up posters and calling for the developers to think about native wildlife that called the land home.

If preliminary approval is granted, the specifics of any subdivision or development to happen on the site will still need to be assessed – and the approval will likely become void if no work is carried out within five years.

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