Korumburra Senior Citizens Centre land set for rezoning

By Andrew Paloczi

AS ANTICIPATED, the Minister for Planning will be asked to approve the rezoning of the land on which the vacant Korumburra Senior Citizens Centre sits, from Public Use Zone (PUZ) to Commercial 1 Zone (C1Z), with councillors adopting a Planning Scheme Amendment to that effect at their February meeting.

Strzelecki Ward’s Cr John Kennedy was the only councillor to vote against the Amendment.

“It’s going to be slow to sell,” he said of the land, noting there are 13 or 14 empty shops in town.

Cr Kennedy remains unconvinced of the viability of continuing to spend money on the site to try to sell it.

“I’ve always said from day one it should be given back to the Senior Citizens,” he said, arguing that is what many in the community want and that public money was put into constructing the building.

Contrastingly, Cr John Schelling described the decision before councillors on Wednesday as “procedural”, elaborating, “We’ve been down the pathways of listening to everyone, involving everyone, taking it all on board and the decision’s been made for us and I look forward to moving ahead.”

That followed a Planning Panel recommendation to rezone the land on the basis that PUZ is not a suitable classification.

While the idea of rezoning the land previously caused considerable local angst, the Planning Panel’s report stressed that a change from PUZ to C1Z won’t preclude community use of the land.

Thus, the rezoning has not dampened the efforts of those in the Korumburra Senior Citizens Club to reclaim what they regard as a second home.