By Owen Jacques
owen [dot] jacques [at] dailymercury [dot] com [dot] au
Four high-rise hotels and a block of residential units. It sounds like a game of monopoly, and so far the Mackay Regional Council has been happy to send Shoal Point developers past go.
The latest high-rise to be given the nod from council is the Ramada development, 30.8m tall hotel, on Belangason Way in Shoal Point with 69 rooms plus a restaurant.
It will stand 21m taller than the current guidelines for residential development.
The motel was approved overwhelmingly at the meeting with only community services councillor George Christensen voting against it. The meeting was told there had been no objections from the Shoal Point community, but Cr Christensen pointed out that this development had other high-rise developments planned on either sides.
Cr Christensen said the battle that raged about a proposed eight-storey development in Bucasia a year ago was on his mind. "The Shoal Point community did not want to see their area cluttered with high-rises," Cr Christensen said. "When that development (in Bucasia) got approved, people were up in arms."
The council told the Shoal Point community by putting a sign up on the rarely-used road, and printing ads in regional newspapers. "I just don't know how many would've seen the sign or the notices in the paper," he said. Later Cr Christensen said, "If it was anything like the other residential one (in Bucasia) there could be a bit of an outcry."
Mayor Col Meng said he did not expect a problem because it was for short-stay accommodation and not a residential block.
The application also stated that the MRC had already approved three multi-storey developments in the same street, being either seven or eight storeys tall. There were also four-storey and five-storey buildings submitted to council near Ramada, waiting for approval.
Taken from The Daily Mercury October 2008