The new Volt Lane development seems to be coming along splendidly. One could for a moment be forgiven that Albury is entering an exciting new stage in its development. It's all a bit of an illusion. Don't get us wrong we love tall buildings skyscrapers even! It's just it has to be right for Albury. It has to be thought-out in a proper fashion with due process. That's the thing about buildings like for example an artist can produce a painting or a bit of graffiti (or both) and it's effect is localised private like. When a developer erects a building the result is a very public statement. The Volt Lane development is one such case in point. For all the wrong reasons. The trouble is with the development, it was all pretty rushed from the start and it shows. The two buildings show little cohesion of design or context. They stand out much as a bastard does on father's day looking at each other in hopeful expectation. They are in fact two entirely different entities. But why? A lot of it had to do with the planning. For years Albury City Council have tried to develop the car park on which the development sits. Various developers have come and gone with their grand plans and an eye to the main chance. Of late Albury City Council seems to have been getting desperate about the whole thing.
Then along came Mr Harper from Canberra. He had a plan so did a few others. The tax department which had been accommodated in the old wool stores wanted a new state-of-the-art green building. Several developers rushed to cobble a plan to accommodate them. Much to the displeasure of the bidders Mr Harper was chosen after, what many believed was a less than transparent process. A few developers cried foul. There was even talk of legal proceedings. Nothing came of it. You need long pockets to bring Albury City Council to account.
The whole process was done in almost indecent haste and secrecy. Most of the councillors knew very little interest in the outcome other than concurring with Council spin-doctors that the development would be a great thing for Albury. The development was approved by a process known as delegated authority in which council staff can make the decisions without consulting councillors. Once the site was valued at between nine and $12 million how much Mr Harper paid for it is anyone's guess but it was almost certainly nowhere near that amount. As Borderline has said in a previous articles Albury ratepayers were entitled to get a fair return for property that they collectively own. They almost certainly did not. Add to that the $8 million Albury City Council gave to the developer for parking and you can almost certainly come to the conclusion that Albury ratepayers have been short-changed. Where else in a capital or provincial city in Australia would you have the Council virtually giving the land away and then giving them millions of dollars to provide parking in the heart of the city. It would almost certainly cause a scandal if it did.
What makes such planning decisions particularly irritating is Albury City Council was last year give permission by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) allowing Council to raise rates above the rate peg set by the NSW Government which in 2011/12 was 2.8%. This will mean rates will increase by 5.64% in 2011/12, 5.69% in 2012/13 and 4.77% in 2013/14.
The mayor told us through her Council spin-doctors that with the rate increase Council would 'now proceed with a range of important projects that otherwise would have been deferred from the works program or abandoned altogether.'
'This special variation will give us the opportunity to meet community expectations for the growth of our city and to act on recommendations from our Albury 2030 Community Strategic Plan,' Cr Glachan said.
One would think that community expectations also include the maximum return for Albury ratepayers when assets are sold to developers. This was not the case with the Volt Lane development.
The recently completed car park has come in for a considerable amount of criticism as to its shortcomings. One wit suggested that those responsible for designing the car park had used 'two pedal cars as their template' when designing the corners at the base of the ramps. Ouch. Inadequate car parking space size and limited room to manoeuvre were common complaints. It seems the developer had built the car park to the minimum possible standards allowed in Australia for car parks. No doubt when workers from the ATO relocate there further complaints will follow.
Obviously the developer, Mr Harper wanted to cut costs and why wouldn't he. The $8 million given to him by Albury City Council was not subject to any tender or public or Council scrutiny . Most councillors only knew about it at a Council meeting last year when mention was made of it when Documents for Sealing came up. Documents for Sealing can mean different things. In this case it meant all the necessary documentation are put in boxes and spirited away to some darkened quiet place to avoid any public scrutiny. Now that Mr Harper had the money in the bank if he made $1000 or $5 million profit on the car parking it was nobody's business certainly not ratepayers business. Just be grateful that this exciting project is going ahead. Few councillors bothered to ask any questions. That's the thing about most Albury City councillors their reluctance to ask any meaningful questions. Their implicit trust of the upper echelons of the executive makes for outcomes such as this. The Mayor, Cr Glachan is on the public record when responding to another matter that there were few questions asked. That's because Council trusted the GM implicitly.
No doubt some people that will say that the development is a good outcome regardless of of the intrigue and secrecy that accompanied it. This is a short term view. With proper planning Albury ratepayers could have got a far better return both aesthetically and and financially. Short-term solutions to Albury's planning will continue to be par for the course if councillors are not up to the task they were elected for and give proper scrutiny to planning decisions. A vibrant CBD is an important aspect of imaging a sense of place . It also determines whether people want to live there, invest here, relocate their factories here. Make it a place where our children would like to live here instead of going elsewhere in search of opportunity. Of course the copious amount of spin emanating from Kiewa Street would tell you otherwise. The ATO sacking about 200 workers before Christmas 2011 hardly rated a mention. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the Volt Lane development just like the old Albury dog track when Gerry Harvey came to town.
Talking about delegated authority Hudson Conway has recently been given approval for a 432 lot housing development on the northern outskirts of Albury. Hudson Conway had purchased the 40 hectare site from the Albury Wodonga Development Corporation for $7 million The whole process was completed without any input from Albury Councillors because it was approved by planning director Michael Keys under delegated authority. 'Complex environmental issues involving private and Crown land that caused the delay in gaining approval', however a planning consultant for Hudson Conway, Peter O'Dwyer told the Border Mail on November 9, 2011, 'those issues had been resolved to everyone's satisfaction and the council had been helpful in achieving a successful outcome'.
No doubt these sentiments were shared by Mr Harper as well.
