Community
31 July, 2024
‘Anti-social’ park to be razed
A PUBLIC park and playground at Cairns North is to disappear and be replaced with a multi-level car park as part of the $50 million Far North Health and Innovation Precinct (Dugurrdja Precinct) being built by James Cook University.
Cairns Regional Council has agreed to relinquish trusteeship of Apex Park so it can be acquired by JCU as well as a neighbouring property in Charles St opposite the precinct which is under construction.
The Cairns Tropical Enterprise Centre (CTEC) is due for completion in 2025 and a 32-bed Cairns Hospital Surgical Unit is expected to be finished in 2026.
Cr Rob Pyne, whose division 5 includes the park, told Wednesday’s council meeting that, while he was seen to be “green and sustainable”, the carpark was “much-needed” in the area near the hospital.
He said he received many complaints from residents and ratepayers about the difficulty of parking near the hospital.
Mayor Amy Eden, who was the divisional 5 councillor up until the March 16 elections, said she too received many complaints about car parking spaces which should not be a local government issue as the hospital was owned and run by the state government.
She said many local businesses were also suffering because the widening of Sheridan St was resulting in the loss of more car parks.
Cr Eden said the park was not used by most people because it had become the site of “anti-social behaviour”.
She said she hoped the multi-storey car park’s wall facing Sheridan St would feature a mural or attractive lighting.
A council report said a meeting in 2021 was told the area “had previously been the location of ongoing community safety concerns. As such an alternative use of the site had the potential to reduce the risk of ongoing incidents”.
“This view was also supported by (the) council’s 2017 land review which identified ‘no community need for the land’ and recommended council resign as trustee of this reserve,” it said.
“This review took into consideration the substantial amount of other open public space in close proximity to the park.”
